Iran Vows Israel ‘Will Pay’ After Airstrike Kills Senior Commander Sayyad Razi Mousavi

A senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in an Israeli airstrike outside the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday, according to Iranian state media. Three security sources later confirmed Sayyad Razi Mousavi’s death to Reuters.

Iran’s state television interrupted its regularly scheduled programming to announce Mousavi had been killed, the wire reported. He was described in a Revolutionary Guards statement read on the air as a brigadier-general and one of the Guards’ most important figures in Syria, responsible for coordinating its military alliance with Iran.

He was also described as a close companion to Qasem Soleimani, the top Iranian general who led the Guards’ elite Quds Force until he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in Jan. 2020.

“Undoubtedly, the usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in Monday’s televised statement, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “This action is another sign of frustration, helplessness, and inability of the occupying Zionist regime.”

There was no immediate comment on Mousavi’s death by the Israeli Defense Forces. Israel was bracing for a response by Iran on its northern front, The Jerusalem Post reported later on Monday, citing local media reports.

Earlier this month, Iran accused Israel of killing two members of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria. Israel’s military has carried out deadly strikes in Syria for years as part of a campaign to stop what it has characterized as Iranian “military entrenchment” there. Those strikes have increased in intensity since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.