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Sunday, April 14, 2024

Iran announces two aerospace officials killed in country

The Guards accused "Zionists" of being behind the high-profile assassination and vowed revenge.

Two Iranian aerospace officials have been “martyred while on mission” in separate incidents inside the country, the armed forces said Monday.

Ali Kamani, a member of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, was “martyred” in Khomein in central Markazi province on Sunday, Fars news agency said quoting a Guards statement.

Elsewhere, “Mohammad Abdoos, an employee of the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, was martyred on Sunday evening during a mission” in the northern Semnan province, the ministry said in a statement.

Fars earlier said Abdoos, 33, was also working in the field of aerospace — which in Iran produces equipment ranging from military aircraft to missiles and drones.

No further details were given on the men or how they died.

Read more: Iran puts second military satellite into orbit

Iran has in the past blamed its arch enemy Israel for a series of killings of military figures and nuclear technology experts.

On May 22, Guards Colonel Sayyad Khodai, 50, was killed outside his home in the east of the Iranian capital by attackers on motorbikes who shot him five times.

The Guards accused “Zionists” of being behind the high-profile assassination and vowed revenge.

The New York Times later reported that Israel had told its close ally the United States that the Jewish state was behind the killing of Khodai.

The US daily cited an anonymous “intelligence official briefed on the communications”.

Iran’s state television has said that Khodai was a member of the Quds Force and that he was “known” in Syria, where Iran has acknowledged deploying “military advisers”.

The Guards described Khodai as a “defender of the sanctuary”, a term used for those who work on behalf of Tehran in Syria or Iraq.

The Guards are designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

Read more: Iran says US assassinated colonel in Tehran

Two weeks ago, Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, a commander of the Guards’ external operations unit the Quds Force, died “in an accident in his home,” according to state news agency IRNA.

AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk