From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 25, 2023
Senior IRGC official killed in alleged Israeli strike in Damascus
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Iranian media reports.
Razi Mousavi “was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus,” the official IRNA news agency reports, using a different name for Sayeda Zeinab, or Sitt Zaynab as it is more commonly called, south of the Syrian capital.
IRNA says Mousavi was “one of the most experienced advisors” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria.
Secondaries can be heard in the area reportedly struck in an airstrike earlier in Aqraba region, Damascus, Syria. pic.twitter.com/4ut6J1h5Dj
— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) December 25, 2023
The semi-official Iranian Tasnim news agency notes Mousavi was close to former IRGC Quds force head Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020 upon arriving in Baghdad.
Mousavi was responsible for coordinating a military alliance between Iran and Syria, and was believed to be heavily involved in Tehran’s efforts to supply weapons to terror proxies in the area, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
There is no further information on the strike from pro-government media outlets in Syria.
AFP contributed to this report.
