Syria: Colonel of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps killed near Damascus

A colonel in the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, was killed on Monday near Damascus by a pipe bomb blamed on Israel, local media reported Wednesday. “Colonel Dawood Jafari, one of Iran’s advisers in Syria and a member of the Guardian Aerospace Force, was killed (Monday morning) by associates of the Zionist regime (Israel) in a roadside bomb attack near Damascus,” the Tasnim news agency reported, citing Guardians statement.

Iran says it has no troops in Syria, but says Sentinel military “advisors” are acting alongside the Syrian state at the invitation of Damascus. “Undoubtedly, the criminal Zionist regime will receive an adequate response for this crime,” the text says.

Attack on pro-Iranian militias

Israel and the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition have carried out several raids against pro-Iranian militias in Syria in recent years. On November 9, a night raid on a convoy carrying weapons and fuel by pro-Iranian militias in Syria, close to the Iraqi border, killed at least 14 people, according to a Syrian NGO.

In March, the Guardians announced the deaths of two high-ranking officers killed in an Israeli attack in Syria, threatening retaliation. While Israel rarely commented on its strikes in Syria, it has justified them on several occasions by the need to prevent Iran from establishing itself near its borders.