Iran holds funeral for a general who was killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran held a funeral Thursday for high-ranking Gen. Razi Mousavi of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who was killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria.
The head of the Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, praised Mousavi and vowed his death would be avenged.
“We will never keep silent in the face of martyrdom of the sons of this nation,” Salami said. “Our revenge will be tough as always, but a revenge that could compensate for the martyrdom of Seyed Razi is nothing but the removal of Israel from the face of existence.”
Salami described Mousavi as a close companion of Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force who was the architect of the country’s terrorist proxies from Afghanistan to Yemen, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
Soleimani was designated as a terrorist by the United States in 2011. Iran has long vowed to destroy Israel.
Salami said Iran also would avenge Soleimani’s death and that Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza were an unrelated and independent action.
Israel views Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran’s nuclear program and its support for regional terrorist groups like Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen who have targeted international shipping in what they portray as a blockade of Israel.
Earlier Thursday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed before Mousavi’s casket, state TV footage showed. Khamenei offered condolences to family of the general and a group of ranking officials who were present in the prayer.
The killing of the general, a longtime adviser of the Guard in Syria, comes amid ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a regional conflict.
Iran-backed terrorist groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have launched attacks on Israel and its allies in support of Hamas terrorists.
In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria.
It occasionally says it’s targeting Iran-backed groups that have backed President Bashar Assad’s government. Iran said an Israeli strike earlier this month killed two of its generals.
