Iran is vowing to avenge what it’s describing as a brazen assassination of a Revolutionary Guard colonel conducted by a foreign intelligence service. Col. Sayad Khodai was reportedly a commander in the elite Quds Force, which is the foreign intelligence wing of the IRGC. Israeli media is claiming that he had “planned attacks on Jews and Israelis worldwide.”
The Sunday killing took place in Tehran when the IRGC colonel was approached by two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle who shot him in the head. The military is blaming Israeli intelligence for the killing, with semi-official ISNA news agency claiming that the Guards subsequently uncovered and arrested spies backed by Israeli intelligence.
According to details of the killing in BBC based on state sources, a pair of gunmen on a motorcycle pulled up beside Khodai as he sat in his car outside his home:
Iran’s state news agency, Irna, reported that Col Khodai was shot with five bullets as he was getting out of his car in eastern Tehran at around 16:00 (11:30 GMT) on Sunday.
It published photos showing a man slumped in the driver’s seat of a Kia Pride. The front passenger side window appeared to have been shot out.
Irna provided no details about Khodai’s role within the Quds Force, although he was called a “defender of the shrine” – a term used to describe Iran military personnel and Iran-backed militia fighters operating in Syria or Iraq.
