TEHRAN -- The assassination of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodai only strengthens the determination of the force to confront the enemies of the Iranian nation, IRGC spokesperson General Ramazan Sharif said on Monday.
“The martyrdom of General Khodaei further consolidated the IRGC’s resolve to defend national security, independence, and interests and confront the enemies of the Iranian nation,” he said.
“The enemies definitely will not accomplish anything through committing criminal acts against the Iranian nation and the Muslim Ummah, particularly the valiant combatants and fighters as well as security forces,” he added.
General Sharif said thugs, rouge elements, and remnants of terrorist groups affiliated with the global arrogance and Zionism will be punished for their criminal acts.
Khodaei’s assassination, he said, has further strengthened the IRGC’s determination to safeguard national security and sovereignty and to decisively confront the enemies of Iran, especially the terrorist U.S. administration plus the bogus, criminal, and the temporary Zionist regime.
President Ebrahim Raisi also said Iran will avenge the Sunday assassination outside his home by assailants on motorcycles.
It was the most high-profile terrorist act inside Iran since the November 2020 assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Raisi said: “I insist on the serious pursuit [of the killers] by security officials, and I have no doubt that the blood of this great martyr will be avenged.
“There is no doubt that the hand of global arrogance can be seen in this crime,” he added, echoing what the IRGC had said the previous day.
He was speaking shortly before visiting Oman, where he was to meet Sultan Haitham, the sultan of Oman.
Khodai’s funeral was due to take place in Tehran on Monday at 5pm local time (12.30 GMT).
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps described Khodai as a “defender of the sanctuary”, a term used for those who volunteer to protect Shia holy shrines in Syria and Iraq.
National television noted that Khodai was “known” in Syria, where Iran has acknowledged deploying military advisers to fight foreign-backed takfiri terrorists.
The official news agency IRNA said Khodai was martyred by five bullets as he returned home at about 4pm on Sunday (11.30 GMT).
Pictures showed a man slumped over in the driver’s seat of a white car, with blood around the collar of his blue shirt and on his right arm. He was strapped in with his seatbelt, and the front window on the passenger side had been shot out.
The style of the brazen attack bore the hallmarks of previous assassinations in Iran blamed on the occupying regime of Israel, such as those targeting the country’s nuclear scientists.
Secretary of the State Security Council Majid Mir-Ahmadi said the assassination was definitely the work of the occupying regime of Israel, adding those who
perpetrated the crime must await a severe response from Iran.
“This act was undeniably carried out by the Zionist regime. They must now be assured that harsh revenge awaits them,” Mir-Ahmadi said in an exclusive interview with IRNA.
“The criminals who have committed the crime must be prepared for a stinging slap as our revenge will be such that they will regret their action.”
The Fars news agency reported that the state prosecutor had visited the scene of the assassination and ordered the “quick identification and arrest of the authors of this criminal act”.
The IRGC said it had arrested several “thugs linked to the intelligence agency of the Zionist regime”.
A statement said the suspects had been involved in a series of crimes, including “robberies, kidnappings and vandalism”.