Iran blames Israel after bomb kills Guards colonel in Syria

He was member of aerospace arm that manufactures drones, missiles and satellites

An improvised bomb has killed an Iranian colonel from the aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near Syria’s capital Damascus, Iranian media reported yesterday, blaming arch foe Israel.

The Islamic republic regularly calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, which in turn sees Iran, with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and its regional proxies, as its biggest security threat.

“Colonel Davoud Jafari, one of Iran’s military advisers in Syria and a member of the Guards’ aerospace arm, was killed with a makeshift bomb planted by the roadside,” the Tasnim news agency reported citing a Guards statement.

The IRGC’s aerospace department manufactures drones, missiles and satellites.

Tasnim said Jafari was killed on Monday “by associates of the Zionist regime”.

Campaign of assassinations

Tehran accuses Israel of a campaign of assassinations, including of scientists involved in what Iran insists is a peaceful nuclear programme. The Israeli air force destroyed what it said was an Iranian drone manufacturing plant located on Syrian territory on October 24.

Syrian authorities had not yet confirmed the killing of Jafari.

Britain-based war monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in the county, reported Jafari was killed with his Syrian bodyguard when the bomb blast hit their vehicle.

The attack took place near Sayyida Zeinab, a south Damascus district that hosts a shrine revered by Shiite Muslims and is home to many Iranians.