ANALYSIS – End of an era. In the most significant assassination since former President Donald Trump ordered the precision missile strike that killed then-Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020, Israel apparently just killed the Iranian Quds Force commander in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who oversaw Iranian covert military operations in these countries, was killed by a missile strike on a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. (RELATED: Israel Bombs Iranian Consulate In Damascus: Report)
The building reportedly served as the military headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which contains the Quds Force.
As part of the embassy compound, Iran has argued that the airstrike constitutes an attack on Iranian territory, in violation of international conventions and norms.
It is believed that IRGC commanders were meeting with leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad to coordinate activities in Gaza and the West Bank when the missile struck. Israeli officials said the building was an outpost of the IRGC, making it a legitimate military target.
The death of Zahedi follows a series of losses for Iran and its proxies in the region. Zahedi is the fourth prominent leader of the Revolutionary Guards to be assassinated since December. (RELATED: FBI Hunting Iranian Assassin Targeting Ex-Trump Officials In US)
Zahedi was highly influential within the Iranian security establishment and would have played a key role in managing how Iran and the so-called “Axis of Resistance” have responded since the Israel-Hamas war began.
But he wasn't the only terror leader killed in the alleged Israeli strike.
Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haj Rahimi, Quds Force Commander Palestine, and General Hossein Amanollahi, Quds Force chief of general staff, were also killed, along with four other senior commanders, Seyyed Mehdi Jalalati, Mohsen Sadaqat, Ali Agha Babaei and Seyyed Ali Salehi Rozbahani. (RELATED: US Funding Of UN Agency Under Fire Due To Alleged Terrorist Ties)
Iran has vowed revenge on Israel after these seven senior commanders were assassinated and could time its retaliation for Quds Day, April 5.
The Jerusalem Post notes that the killing of “Zahedi marks the end of an era for Iranian commanders.”
The Post explains:
The era is encapsulated in a photo circulating on social media showing Zahedi, IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Ahmed Kazemi. Four of these men are now dead, leaving only Nasrallah.
This is symbolic because it shows how a whole generation of key operatives and allies of Iran have been killed. It is symbolic on a wider level because it shows how Iran may be losing its grip on Syria as its IRGC chain of command there suffers losses. The loss of Zahedi is being watched in the region. For instance, Al-Ain media in the UAE has an article examining the photo and noting that Nasrallah is the “last of them.”
“In the Iranian consulate strike, seven Iranian military advisers and officers were killed, the most prominent of whom was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who served as Deputy Chief of Operations of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, in addition to assuming command of its air and ground forces,” the report notes.
The Post also notes the death of the other Iranian commanders in the photo, such as Soleimani (and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader of the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq). Meanwhile, Kazemi, who is also in the photo, died in a plane crash in 2006. Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.
These constitute huge losses for Tehran. The Post concludes that:
Iran and its proxies will have a hard time replacing these men. This is because many of them had decades of experience working in their various capacities. They also were key nodes in Iran's network that links Iran to militias in Iraq and Syria and then links Iran's network in Damascus to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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