The Iranian government has accused Israel of assassinating a senior Revolutionary Guards official in a missile strike in Syria.
The official, General Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed in an attack on his car outside the capital, Tehran, on Friday.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said General Fakhrizadeh had spent many years of his life defending Iran’s “strong defence capability and was later martyred by wicked enemies”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed retaliation, while President Hassan Rouhani said it was a “cowardly act of terror”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not directly addressed the assassination. However, he had previously singled out General Fakhrizadeh in a speech, calling him “greatest and most dangerous” threat to the Jewish state.
The US has also yet to comment on the assassination.
The attack comes amid heightened tension between Iran and Israel, who are widely believed to have been behind a series of attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in recent months. The US has also imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran in an effort to pressure it to renegotiate a nuclear deal.
