At least 11 people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria. Among the dead was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the top generals of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-IRGC. This is the first time a top Iranian general has been killed in a foreign attack since IRGC commander General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US strike in Iraq in 2020.
General Mohammad Reza Zahedi was the senior commander of the Al-Quds Force, an important wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. This force carries out espionage activities abroad on behalf of the IRGC and is also a para-militia force. Apart from Reza Zahedi, General Hadi Haji Rahimi was also killed in the Israeli attack in Syria.
General Reza Zahedi led Al-Quds Force operations in Lebanon and Syria. The general is believed to have been key to Iran’s relationship with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And General Hadi Haji Rahimi assisted him in this work.
General Zahedi’s death could disrupt Iran’s Quds Force intelligence operations across the Middle East. Saeed Golkar, assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee in the United States, said, “The death of Zahedi is the most significant loss of the IRGC after the killing of Qasem Soleimani.” IRGC is still dependent on one person and his network. Because of this they cannot work independently.
General Reza Zahedi is known as Hasan Mahdavi among the IRGC forces. He joined the IRGC in 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He first came into direct military command during the Iraq-Iran war. At that time he was leading a small brigade.
After the end of the Iraq-Iran war, Reza Zahedi was promoted to head an army training department. He was later promoted to the rank of general in 2005 and appointed by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as head of the IRGC’s infantry. It is believed that he invented and trained the army on how to use it to suppress the anti-government movement.
Later, General Reza Zahedi developed a close relationship with IRGC commander General Qassem Soleimani and through him with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah. General Zahedi oversaw the supply of weapons, including missiles, to Hezbollah from Iran.