Who was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Iranian general murdered by Israel in Syria

An attack attributed to Israel The attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria’s capital, on Monday killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the Quds Force, the elite paramilitary wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Along with the senior military leader, 12 other people died.

On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneiwarned that Israel will pay for the attack and also blamed the attack U.S for being the main ally of the country led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

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“The evil regime (Israel) will be punished for our brave men. “We will make them repent of this crime and others like it, with God’s help,” he said. Khamenei is a statement.

Emergency and security teams put out a fire at the site of attacks that hit a building attached to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on April 1, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP). (LOUAI BESHARA/)

Hours earlier, the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisiguaranteed that this “cowardly crime will not go unanswered”.

Raisi maintained that Israel “he has included indiscriminate killings on the agenda” after having suffered “repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front”, but “he must know that he will never achieve his sinister goals with such inhumane means”.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a press conference on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, September 20, 2023. (Photo by Ed JONES/AFP). (ED JONES/)

The bombing attributed to Israel destroyed the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Among the 13 dead were seven members of the Guardians of the Revolutionbetween them General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his number two, Mohamed Hadi Haji-Rahimi.

According to the AFP agency based on sources in Iran, Six missiles fired by F-35 fighters were used in the bombing.

This is the first attack directed against an Iranian diplomatic building in Syriaa country that has been in civil war since 2011 and where Will and his allies support the president’s government Bashar al-Assad.

The attack takes place in the middle of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and with Will supporting the Palestinians. Furthermore, militias allied with Iran, such as HezbollahO Houthis and other residents of Iraq and Syria perpetrated actions of varying magnitude against Israeli territory or its interests.

Persian Gulf monarchies condemned the attack on the Iranian consulate amid fears that the conflict in Gaza would expand into a regional war. For your part, The Arab League accused Israel of seeking to “expand the war and push the region into chaos.”

At this point, it is worth knowing who the general was Mohammad Reza Zahedi and what is the Quds Force.

Emergency and security teams search the rubble at the site of the attacks that hit the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP). (LOUAI BESHARA/)

Mohammad Reza Zahedi was born on November 2, 1960 and reached Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1980, less than a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

He commanded the 44th Qamar Bani Hashem Division between 1983 and 1986, and the 14th Imam Hussein Division until 1991, according to BBC Mundo.

In 1998, General Qassem Soleimani -assassinated by the United States on January 3, 2020- tasked him with directing the Lebanese Quds Force Corps.

General Qassem Soleimani. (AFP).

Between 2005 and 2008 he led the land forces of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was responsible for the Thar-Allah base in Tehran, in charge of security in the Iranian capital.

In 2008 Zahedi returned to Quds Force. Until the day you die He was the commander of the aforementioned organization in Syria and Lebanon.

He played a fundamental role in providing military assistance to both the Bashar al-Assad like the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi He was considered one of the main people responsible for planning the offensive of Hezbollah in the spring of 2000, which culminated in the definitive withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces of Lebanon, thus ending an 18-year conflict.

Its function was to provide Hezbollah weapons and high-level technical knowledge so that it could carry out effective operations in the south of Lebanon.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi was the one who planned the cross-border incursion carried out by Hezbollah in 2000, which led to the capture of three Israeli soldiers. As part of his duties, he also masterminded the international operation to kidnap the Israeli colonel Elanan Tannenbaummwho was released on January 29, 2004 after an agreement with Israel which included the release of 431 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.

In Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi helped the regime Al-Assad to suppress the 2011 protests, which led to the current civil war.

He also reportedly trained Iranian forces to suppress protests against the Tehran regime.

Since 2010 Zahedi was on the U.S. Treasury Department’s terrorist list for acting as a “liaison to Hezbollah and the Syrian intelligence services” and “securing arms shipments” to the radical Islamic Lebanon.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran. (AFP). (-/)

O Quds Force and the elite paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpsthe largest military organization in the Islamic Republic of Iran and considered by the United States to be a terrorist group.

He reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah. Ali Khamenei.

O Quds Force It specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence. It operates outside the borders of Will.

It aims to combat Iran’s enemies and expand the country’s influence in the region, but does not directly involve itself in military actions.

Support militias like Hezbollah, HamasO Palestinian Islamic JihadO Houthis of Yemen and Shiite armed groups in Iraq It is Syria. Even the United States accused the Quds Force to give weapons to Taliban of Afghanistan.

Its name means Jerusalem in Farsi and Arabic, a city that its fighters promised to “liberate”.

General Stanley McChrystal, who participated in the Iraq War, described the Quds Force in an article in Foreign Policy magazine as “an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the United States Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).”.

On April 15, 2019, The US State Department has designated the IRGC, including the Quds Force, as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended.

BBC Mundo recalled that in Quds Force He is credited with masterminding several deadly attacks, such as the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 US Marines, 58 French soldiers and 6 Lebanese civilians.

According to estimates, the Quds Force would currently have between 5,000 and 10,000 members.

They only support and advise the allied militias of Willbut they do not directly participate in military actions.

According to former US Army intelligence officer David Dionisi, author of several books on the subject, The group is organized into eight different addresses based on geographic location: Western countries; Former Soviet Union; Iraq; Afghanistan, Pakistan and India; Israel, Lebanon and Jordan; Türkiye; North Africa; and Arabian Peninsula.

Source: Elcomercio