Iranian Commander killed by drone strike at Syria-Iraq border
Nov 30, 2020
Tehran [Iran], December 1 : Days after Iran's nuclear arms program scientist was assassinated, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards has been killed in a drone strike near the Syria-Iraq border.
According to media reports cited by Haaretz, three more were killed along with the commander, who has been identified as Muslim Shahdan.
The Iraqi intelligence sources have been quoted as saying that Shahdan's car was targeted while he was crossing into Syria. Despite reports confirming Shahdan's death, Hezbollah-affiliated organization has denied the report.
Last week, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist was killed in an apparent assassination that the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif linked to Israel.
However, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has not commented on the incident. Fakhrizadeh was head of the research center of new technology in the elite Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday accused Israel of being behind the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
The President said that the incident will not disrupt the "scientific growth" of the country and will only make young scientists more determined "to continue the path of this precious martyr", Sputnik reported.
In January this year, the United States assassinated Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force responsible for military activity outside Iran, Haaretz reported
Tension started to re-build in the Middle East region after the US unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal agreement and unleashed sanctions on Iran. Thereafter, Tehran started to withdraw from its nuclear commitments in 2019.
