Maj. Gen. Razi Mousavi was killed in a missile strike south of Damascus • Tehran’s top diplomat warns that “Tel Aviv is waiting for a tough countdown.”

By JNS

Iran is threatening Israel with retaliation after a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in an airstrike on Monday in Syria.

The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Maj. Gen. Razi Mousavi “was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zainabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus.” Hebrew media reported that three missiles hit a weapons depot south of the Syrian capital in a targeted attack that killed Mousavi.

Secondaries can be heard in the area reportedly struck in an airstrike earlier in Aqraba region, Damascus, Syria. pic.twitter.com/4ut6J1h5Dj

— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) December 25, 2023

Considered one of the IRGC’s top Quds Force commanders, Mousavi was responsible for coordinating the “military” alliance between Iran and Syria and was reportedly involved in Tehran’s efforts to supply its terror proxies in the region with weapons, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.

He was a longtime confidante of Qasem Soleimani, the Quds Force commander killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

Tehran threatened Jerusalem with retaliation for Mousavi’s killing, with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeting that “Tel Aviv is waiting for a tough countdown.”

The IRGC said that “the usurping and barbaric Zionist regime will pay for this crime.”