Head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Blames ‘Zionists’ for Killing Colonel

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accused “Zionists” of assassinating one of its top colonels. IRGC commander Hossein Salami made the accusation on Monday, a week after Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari, said to be part of the elite Quds Force, was assassinated on the street outside of his home in Tehran. Khodayari was killed “by the most vicious people, the Zionists, and God willing, we will avenge his death,” Salami said in a statement. “The enemy pursued him from the heart of the White House and Tel Aviv for months and years, door to door and alley to alley to martyr him,” the statement also said. Salami stopped short of directly naming Israel, which is known in Iran as the “Zionist regime.” Still, The New York Times reported days after the assassination that Israel informed the United States that it was responsible for the killing, something that Israel has denied. Khodayari is reported to have planned attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets throughout the world including at least two very recent plots. Iranian leaders have vowed revenge for his killing. Also on Monday, Israel’s National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued an updated travel warning against travel to Turkey, due to fears of Iranian revenge attacks against Israeli targets around the world over Khodayari’s killing. “For several weeks, especially since Iran has accused Israel in the death of an IRGC officer last week, there is increasing concern in the security establishment regarding Iranian efforts to attack Israeli targets around the world,” the bureau said in the statement, calling Turkey “a country that currently has a high level of risk for Israelis.” The statement added that the warning stems from a “tangible threat to Israelis in Turkey.”