Report: Israel Kills Iranian Commander in Damascus Airstrike Maher Al Mounes / AFP via Getty

Israel reportedly killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official Mohammad Reza Zahedi in an airstrike in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, a sign that Israel is taking on growing threats from Iran and its terrorist proxies.

The airstrike recalled that of the U.S. against IRGC leader Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020 — a successful operation that deterred Iran from further attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel. (Then-candidate Joe Biden criticized the attack, as did all of the other major Democratic Party candidates for president.)

President Donald Trump declared the IRGC a terrorist organization — a designation that Biden has not yet revoked.

The Jerusalem Post reported:

An apparent airstrike in Damascus on Monday killed Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Iranian state television has confirmed.

Iranian press reported that Zahedi was meeting with leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad at the time of the strike, but these reports could not be independently verified.

Zahedi commanded the Quds Force's Unit 18000, responsible, among other things, for smuggling ammunition and precision weapons into Lebanon. He had also commanded the IRGC's Air Force and Imam Hussein Division in the past.

Iran arms and funds Hezbollah in Lebanon; Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in Gaza and Lebanon; and the Houthi militias in Yemen. It also controls militias in Iraq and elsewhere that have attacked American troops.

Hezbollah has been firing on northern Israeli cities since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Israel has responded with airstrikes on Hezbollah targets and on Hamas commanders in Lebanon. Israel has also been targeting Iranian proxies for years in Syria as they attempt to move weapons and personnel into Lebanon that can threaten Israel.

Update: Iran has acknowledged that two generals were killed in the airstrike, along with five other IRGC officials.

The Times of Israel reported:

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a statement carried by Iranian media officially announce the deaths of seven members in the alleged Israeli strike in Damascus earlier today.

Among the seven are Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the most senior IRGC Quds Force commander in Syria, and his deputy, Mohammad Haj Rahimi.

The airstrike happened to take place during the last week of Ramadan, before Iran's annual observance of Quds Day, an annual orgy of anti-Israel hatred staged during the final days of the Islamic holy month.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Source link