Over the past year, Israel has intensified its targeted strikes against senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Lebanon and Syria.
Once unimaginable, these assassinations have become so frequent in recent months that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei leading funeral prayers for IRGC commanders has become almost routine.
Among the IRGC personnel killed in Israeli attacks over the past year are senior commanders, staff officers, brigadier generals, colonels, intelligence officers, ground force personnel, and naval staff members of the IRGC.
The intensity of this confrontation is such that, in April, Yahya Rahim Safavi, the Supreme Leader’s military advisor and former IRGC commander, said that all four commanders he had recommended to the Supreme Leader for leadership roles in the IRGC had been killed.
From Mohammad Ali Attaei to Seyed Reza Mousavi
Before the October 7 Hamas attack, Israeli forces had already targeted the Islamic Republic’s military and nuclear officials both inside and outside Iran. However, since then, the frequency of Israeli strikes on IRGC personnel has sharply increased.
According to a statement from the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Attaei and Panah Taghizadeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Zainabiya district of Damascus on December 1, 2023.
The two commanders from the IRGC’s Quds Force played key roles in advancing Iran’s missile technology and weaponry. Although little information is available about them, some reports suggest that Taghizadeh was known as an aerospace engineer responsible for missile system development, while Attaei was more involved in logistics and operations, supporting Iranian forces and Hezbollah in Syria.
Some media outlets claim that the attack was part of Israel’s efforts to prevent the transfer of advanced missiles to Hezbollah through Syria. The goal of this operation was to weaken the military capabilities of the Axis of Resistance.
This was the beginning of a series of attacks that Israel launched in a new round of strikes targeting IRGC forces. On December 25, 2023, Seyed Reza Mousavi was killed in a drone attack in the Zainabiya district of Damascus.
Mousavi, a close associate of Qassem Soleimani, was one of the most prominent Quds Force commanders in Syria. He was said to be a shadow commander, whose primary activity was in Syria and Lebanon, overseeing the transfer of weapons from Iran to these countries as well as to Iraq, Yemen, and Palestinian territories.
He had been sent to Syria and Lebanon during the final years of the Iran-Iraq war, and over the years, through personal relationships with various figures in the Bashar Assad government, he facilitated the passage of personnel and equipment to Hezbollah and Palestinian groups.
Mousavi was considered a key member of the IRGC, especially after Soleimani’s death, as he was seen as someone who could fill the void, particularly because Esmail Qaani, the new Quds Force commander, lacked familiarity with the region and the Arabic language.
Following his death, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic led funeral prayers for him. His place in the region was such that nearly all the forces in the Axis of Resistance reacted to his death. Some of his associates said that Israel had threatened him several times before the attack, which was carried out with three missiles, and that Israeli forces had previously struck locations he frequented without success.
The Assassination of Haj Sadeq: Israel’s Strike on the Heart of IRGC Intelligence
On January 20, the Israeli military launched a major attack on the al-Mazzeh district of Damascus, killing Hojjatollah Omidvar, a senior Quds Force commander, along with four other IRGC officers.
Omidvar, known as Haj Sadeq, was a close associate of Soleimani. Sources close to the Islamic Republic claim that Omidvar played a significant role in “driving the Americans out of Syria” and had been on Mossad and U.S. intelligence agencies’ kill lists multiple times.
It was claimed that he had caused serious problems for American forces in Syria. He coordinated Quds Force intelligence operations in Syria and Lebanon, playing a key role in attacks and operations against American and Israeli forces in the region.
It is also said that Haj Sadeq was among the Iranian hostages captured by the al-Nusra Front during the early days of the Syrian war, eventually being released alongside other captives through Qatari mediation.
Other officers killed in this attack, which was launched from the Golan Heights, included Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi, Mohammad Amin Samadi, and Ali Aghazadeh, all of whom were active in intelligence and military operations. The attack marked one of the most significant intelligence setbacks for the IRGC in Syria.
Following these consecutive incidents, Reuters reported that after Israel’s strikes in Syria, the IRGC withdrew high-ranking commanders and “dozens of mid-level officers” from the country.
However, it seems that the number of IRGC forces in the region did not significantly decrease. Just one day after the report, Iranian media announced the death of Saeed Alidadi, another IRGC “advisor” in Syria, in an Israeli attack.
In March, two members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, Seyed Mousa Hosseini and Reza Zarei, both from the First Region of the IRGC Navy and military advisors in Syria, were also killed.
A Bitter April for the Islamic Republic
April was a difficult month for the IRGC. In the early days of the month, Behrouz Vahedi, an IRGC commander in Syria, was killed in an airstrike in Deir ez-Zor. Vahedi was responsible for transporting weapons and military equipment to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
The strike, which targeted a villa, killed 15 people, including Vahedi and two of his bodyguards. The Israeli military said that the site was being used as a communications center. Deir ez-Zor, where the villa was located, is a key route for transferring weapons and equipment from Iran to Lebanon and has long been a primary target of Israeli airstrikes.
On April 1 Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in the al-Mazzeh district of Damascus. In the attack, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior IRGC commander, along with Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, another high-ranking commander, were killed.
Zahedi was a veteran IRGC commander and a key figure in the IRGC Ground Forces, with a long history of involvement in the Iran-Iraq war and overseas wars in Syria. He was described by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was recently killed, as the head of Iran’s military advisors in Syria and Lebanon. Some believe that this attack wiped out the entire IRGC command structure in Syria.
In this attack, which the Iranian ambassador claimed was carried out with six missiles fired from an F-35 fighter jet, other officers killed included Hossein Amanollahi, Mehdi Jalalati, Mohsen Sedaghat, Ali Aqa Babai, and Ali Salehi. After the attack, Ali Khamenei said: “Israel must be punished, and it will be punished.”
On April 13, Iran fired some 300 suicide drones and missiles at Israel, almost all of which were shot down by the US, UK, and Israel.
Last month, Israel carried out a massive airstrike on southern Beirut. The attack resulted in the deaths of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Abbas Nilforoushan, a key commander in the IRGC, who was recently appointed as the main coordinator of military operations between Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Nilforoushan was considered a crucial commander behind the scenes in both military and diplomatic efforts of the “Axis of Resistance” and one of Iran’s most important operatives in Lebanon.
On August 15, Iranian media reported the death of Ahmadreza Afshari, a member of the IRGC Air Force, due to injuries from an earlier airstrike. Hossein Salami, the IRGC’s commander, attributed his death to coalition forces’ attacks. Afshari had been injured in early August and was later transferred to Iran for treatment but did not survive. Iran had not previously acknowledged such an attack.
With the deaths of commanders like Zahidi, Mousavi, Nilforoushan, and other prominent IRGC officers, Iran’s command structure and operational capabilities in the region have been severely impacted.
Source » iranwire