Iran vows to avenge killing as it buries Revolutionary Guard colonel
Source: The Guardian
Iran vows to avenge killing as it buries Revolutionary Guard colonel
Finger of blame pointed at Israel after Hassan Sayad Khodayari shot dead in Tehran
Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent
Mon 23 May 2022 18.22 BST
Last modified on Mon 23 May 2022 18.35 BST
An Iranian colonel shot dead in Tehran by assailants on motorcycles has been buried as officials vowed to avenge an assassination that they continue to lay at the feet of Israel.
The murder of Col Hassan Sayad Khodayari is the highest-profile killing of an Iranian official since the violent death of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020 and appears to fit a pattern of assassinations that began more than a decade ago.
The gruesome death of Khodayari in a car outside his home was also most likely another episode in a series of regional clashes, which have been fought on the waterways of the region, in the skies over Syria, the soil of northern Iraq and on Lebanon’s border, where frequent skirmishes have raised fears of a broader flare-up.
Both Iran and Israel have been prepared to take brinkmanship on proxy battlefields to near breaking point. However, the targeted killings of influential Iranian military officers and scientists are the most visceral scenes of a dangerous shadow conflict that has resulted in up to a dozen Iranian officials being killed, many using the same modus operandi of gunmen riding motorbikes and using weapons fitted with silencers.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/23/iran-vows-to-avenge-killing-as-it-buries-revolutionary-guard-colonel
