Monday, April 01, 2024

Alleged Israeli airstrike takes out Iranian general in Damascus

Hope and pray this will not escalate the Israel-Hamas War! This is a serious act on April Fool's Day! How much is the Middle East a powder keg?

If this Iranian general was involved in organizing Iran affiliated terrorist proxy groups in Lebanon, Syria, or Iraq, then he sure was not innocent.

Israel already gave ample warning to General Zahedi by killing one of his close subordinate Generals first in December of 2023. Who is next?

"Mohammed Reza Zahedi, the top commander in the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for Lebanon and Syria was assassinated in an airstrike on Monday, along with his lieutenant and about five other officers, the IRGC said that night.
Zahedi is the highest-ranking Iranian killed since the current war started, even higher than Sayyed Reza Mousavi, killed in December, The Jerusalem Post has learned. ...
removing Zahedi could be seen as a blow to the management of the Lebanese terror groups’ rocket attacks on Israel.  ..."

"... Israel killed one of Iran’s senior-most military commanders in Syria in an airstrike on April 1.
[i] Israel struck a building directly adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and some of his top subordinates.
[ii] Zahedi was a highly influential and well-connected individual within the Iranian security establishment, having held several key positions throughout his career.
[iii] Zahedi most recently commanded the IRGC Quds Force unit responsible for overseeing operations in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestinian Territories.
[iv] Zahedi almost certainly therefore played a prominent role in managing how Iran and its so-called “Axis of Resistance” have escalated against the United States and Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began. Zahedi beforehand commanded the IRGC’s ground and air services and served as the operations deputy at the IRGC’s joint staff.
[v] He was also part of an extraordinarily influential and tightly knit circle of senior IRGC officers who met one another during the Iran-Iraq War and have periodically come together in the intervening decades to interfere in Iranian domestic politics.
[vi] Other members of this informal fraternity include Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who the United States killed in January 2020, and his successor and current Quds Force Commander Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani.
Israel targeted Zahedi as part of an air campaign that it has conducted to disrupt the Iranian transfer of military materiel to its proxies and partners in Lebanon and Syria.
[vii] Israel has conducted several strikes targeting Iranian and Iranian-backed positions in Syria in recent months to this end, including killing IRGC Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi outside Damascus in December 2023.
[viii] Mousavi was one of Zahedi’s subordinates and responsible for moving military assets and equipment through Syria. Zahedi is now the senior-most Iranian officer that Israel has killed in its air campaign. ..."

Alleged Israeli airstrike takes out Iranian general in Damascus - The Jerusalem Post The strike killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to a report in Reuters, citing a security source in Lebanon. 

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