Israel acts wherever it has to, army chief says after death of top Iran general

Israel’s military chief, asked on Tuesday about a reported Israeli strike that killed a senior advisor in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria, declined to comment but said Israeli forces work throughout the region.

The IRGC said in a statement on Monday Brig. Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi, a “senior IRGC advisor in Syria,” was killed in an Israeli “missile attack” in Damascus. Iran has vowed to make Israel “pay” for Mousavi’s death.

“I will not comment on various actions we take. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is working together with other security organizations throughout the Middle East, within the borders of the state, around the borders of the state,” Herzi Halevi told reporters near Gaza when asked about the strike.

“We take whatever action necessary to make it very clear that we are very determined to defend the country, are willing to go far,” Chief of the General Staff Halevi said.

Mousavi was in charge of providing “logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria,” the IRGC statement said, referring to a network of regional militant groups supported by Iran, including the Palestinian group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, various militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen.

Iranian state news agency IRNA described Mousavi as one of the most experienced advisors of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the IRGC. It said he was killed in an Israeli attack in Sayyida Zeinab south of Damascus.