Revolutionary Guard officer shot dead in Tehran

A revolutionary guard was shot dead in broad daylight in the Iranian capital. The procedure is reminiscent of the murder of high-ranking nuclear scientists. The government sees Israel behind the assassination.

In Tehran, relatives of Sayad Khodaie mourn by the car in which the Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer was shot dead on Sunday.

IRGC / Wana News Agency / Reuters

The killers came on a motorcycle. From there they opened fire in the Iranian capital of Tehran and shot Colonel Sayad Khodaie with five bullets before disappearing again. The murder happened outside the Khodaies house, which the Associated Press says is on a secured street near Parliament. Pictures released by Iranian agencies show the victim buckled in his seat in the car, blood can be seen, and a window has been shattered.

Khodaie was previously a complete unknown, most Iranians had never heard his name. From what is now known, he was an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Sepah-e Pasdaran, and a member of the Kuds Brigades, which is responsible for foreign operations. The Pasdaran confirmed Sunday night that Khodaie was killed in an assassination attempt. Iran on Monday blamed Israel for Khodaie’s killing and vowed retaliation.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said on television that the murder would be investigated and “avenged”. That the Tehran prosecutor arrived at the scene quickly after the murder to begin the investigation and called for the immediate arrest of the perpetrators, speaks for it that Khodaie played an important role in the opaque structure of the Revolutionary Guard’s overseas operations.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh said: “The sworn enemies of the holy system of the Islamic Republic of Iran have once again shown their evil nature with the assassination and martyrdom of a member of the Revolutionary Guard.”

Is Israel’s Secret Service Involved?

The Pasdaran are a regular part of the Iranian military, but the American government has classified them as a terrorist organization since 2019. The Revolutionary Guard supports the Asad regime in Syria, and they also train radical militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. According to the semi-official news agency Tasnim, Khodaie was one of the “defenders of the shrines”. In Iran, this is the code word for operations in Syria.

In connection with the assassination there is also speculation about an involvement of the Israeli secret service. The semi-official Isna news agency reported on Sunday that members of an Israeli intelligence network had been discovered and arrested by the Pasdaran. The Israeli prime minister’s office, which oversees the Mossad intelligence agency, declined to comment on the events in Tehran.

Israeli politicians, however, responded with satisfaction. “I don’t know who killed Khodaie,” said former defense minister Moshe Yaalon. “But whoever it was did a good job.” Iran is the main source of instability in the Middle East. Israel is in a position to say, “If you want a thing done, do it yourself.”

According to Israeli media Khodaie was behind a series of plots that are said to have targeted Israeli businessmen and diplomats in various countries in recent months. In April, an attack on three people in Turkey, including an employee of the Israeli consulate, is said to have been foiled. Khodaie is also said to have been behind a foiled assassination attempt on an Israeli businessman in Cyprus and plots to assassinate businessmen in Africa and South America.

Nuclear scientists as target

The attack is reminiscent of attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists. At least six Iranian scientists have been the victims of deadly attacks since 2010, the perpetrators often came on motorcycles. In November 2020, for example, nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizade was shot dead in his car near Tehran. He was also a member of the Pasdaran and an expert in missile technology and a leader in Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program. According to Iranian media, Israeli secret services have been trying to eliminate him for years.

According to the Israeli media, if Israel were behind the deadly attack on Khodaie, this would intensify tensions between the two countries. The fact that Khodaie has been linked to the attacks on Israeli and other Western targets could make it even more difficult for the US to remove the Revolutionary Guard from its list of terrorist organizations.

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