On December 25 an Israeli Air Drive precision strike on the Syrian capital Damascus killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier Common Seyed Razi Mousavi. “A number of hours in the past, throughout the prison missile assault of the child-killing Zionist regime on Damascus, Brigadier-Common Seyed Razi Mousavi, one of many IRGC’s senior navy advisers, was martyred,” the corps introduced, including that he had been within the nation “for supporting the resistance entrance in Syria.” This was in reference to a standard entrance fashioned by vary of Iranian-aligned actors together with Syria, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, the Yemeni Ansurullah Coalition and numerous militia teams throughout the area. “The usurping and barbaric Zionist regime pays for this crime,” the assertion concluded. Common Mousavi was an in depth affiliate of the Corps’ most senior officer Common Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a CIA drone strike in January 2020. The American operation to assassinate Soleimani reportedly additionally benefitted from Israeli intelligence assist, with Iran having retaliated in that occasion with a missile strikes on U.S. navy services in Iraq which precipitated over 100 American casualties. Assassination of Iranian senior officers and different individuals of strategic significance by Israel and a variety of Western states has occurred continuously for some years, primarily in Iraq and Syria but in addition at instances inside Iranian borders.
Common Mousavi was a longtime advisor for native forces in Syria, the place the Revolutionary Guard Corps considerably expanded its presence within the 2010s to assist counterinsurgency efforts after Turkey, Israel and a variety of Western states supported Islamist militia teams to wage struggle in opposition to the Syrian state. Israel has in flip perceived the growth of Iranian and allied navy actions close to its borders to be a significant risk to its safety. Tensions between the 2 regional powers have risen significantly since early October, when the outbreak of open hostilities between Israeli forces and Gaza based mostly Palestinian militia teams led to each a full scale Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and the start of frequent skirmishes on the Israeli-Lebanese border with Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia forces. Israel additionally escalated air strikes on Syria from October, together with strikes on its main worldwide airports, with this allegedly meant to forestall the move of latest Iranian provides to allied forces within the area. The US and a variety of different Western states have intervened considerably in assist of Israeli operations in Gaza, together with deploying drones and personnel on the bottom in addition to massively escalating munitions provides and growing their general navy presences within the Center East.
