ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Gunmen shot dead a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force on Sunday in east of Tehran, reported Iranian state media while identifying the victim as a colonel.
“Sayyad Khodai was martyred by two terrorists riding a motorbike with five bullets in Tehran,” Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said.
IRNA referred to Khodai as a “defender of the shrine,” a term used to describe those working on behalf of Iran in Syria or Iraq.
He was shot at around 4:00 pm near Mojahedin-e-Islam Street, according to the agency.
The perpetrators are still at large.
The IRGC claimed that the assault was carried out by “elements linked to global arrogance,” a reference to the United States and its allies.
No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
Khodai’s assassination follows IRGC’s arrest of several people linked to the “Zionist regime” who had “committed robberies, vandalism, kidnapping and taking forced and fabricated confessions,” IRNa stated earlier on Sunday.
The incident also comes a day after Israeli strikes targeted Iranian positions and weapon deports in Syria, killing at least three people.
