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An Iranian Revolutionary Guards colonel was shot lifeless exterior his Tehran dwelling on Sunday, the Guards mentioned, blaming his “assassination” on assailants linked to america and its allies.
The killing of Colonel Sayyad Khodai is probably the most excessive profile homicide inside Iran for the reason that November 2020 killing of prime nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Iran had accused Israel of masterminding the assault on Fakhrizadeh’s convoy close to Tehran, and later recognized him as a deputy defence minister.
On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps mentioned that “components linked to international conceitedness” — a reference to the US and its allies, together with Israel — have been liable for the “terrorist act” that claimed Khodai’s life.
In an announcement posted on their web site, the Guards mentioned Khodai “was assassinated in an armed assault carried out by two motorcyclists on Mojahedin-e Eslam avenue in Tehran”, exterior his dwelling.
The Guards — the ideological arm of Iran’s army — described Khodai as a “defender of the sanctuary”, a time period used for anybody who works on behalf of the Islamic republic in Syria or Iraq.
Iran wields appreciable affect in Iraq, dwelling to key Shiite holy shrines, the place it says it has “army advisors” tasked with coaching international “volunteers”.
Revered common Qasem Soleimani, who headed the Quds Drive, the international operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in a US drone assault within the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020.
The Islamic republic can also be a serious ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has backed his authorities in that nation’s 11-year civil struggle. Tehran says it has deployed forces in Syria on the invitation of Damascus, however solely as advisors.
State tv mentioned that Khodai was “well-known” in Syria, with out elaborating.
– 5 bullets –
The official information company IRNA mentioned Khodai was killed by 5 bullets as he returned dwelling at round 4:00 pm (1130 GMT).
The company printed photos exhibiting a person slumped over within the driver’s seat of a white automotive, with blood across the collar of his blue shirt and on his proper higher arm.
He’s strapped in along with his seat belt and the entrance window on the passenger aspect has been shot out.
Overseas ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh deplored the killing of Khodai.
“This inhuman crime was perpetrated by terrorist components linked to international conceitedness,” he mentioned in an announcement, denouncing “the silence of nations that fake to battle towards terrorism”.
The Guards mentioned they launched an investigation to establish the “aggressor or aggressors”.
The Fars information company reported that the state prosecutor visited the scene of the killing and ordered the “fast identification and arrest of the authors of this prison act”.
Hours earlier on Sunday, the Guards mentioned they’d arrested a gang of “thugs linked to the intelligence company of the Zionist regime (Israel)”.
A press release mentioned the suspects have been concerned in a collection of crimes, together with “robberies, kidnappings and vandalism”.
Khodai’s killing got here as negotiations between Iran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal have stalled since March.
One of many primary sticking factors is Tehran’s demand to take away the Guards from a US terrorism checklist — a request rejected by Washington.
The 2015 settlement gave Iran sanctions reduction in alternate for curbs on its nuclear programme to stop Tehran from creating an atomic bomb — one thing it has all the time denied eager to do.
Nevertheless it fell aside after US president Donald Trump pulled out of the deal unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed biting financial sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to start rolling again by itself commitments.
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