The head of Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, declared in remarks on Wednesday that Iran would take vengeance on Israel for an airstrike against an IRGC terrorist attributed to Jerusalem. The child-killing Zionist criminals should know that they will pay for the innocent blood that was shed in this crime; they should wait for the response,” Salami threatened, according to the Iranian state-run propaganda outlet PressTV.
Iran routinely threatens to destroy the state of Israel, considering it illegitimate and supporting jihadist terrorists advocating for replacing the Jewish state with a sovereign Palestinian entity. Iran is widely believed to have played a role in the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of Israel, the October 7 siege of the country by the Sunni jihadist terrorist group Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 people and the abduction of 250 people, of which an estimated 130 are believed to remain in Hamas captivity. A Hamas spokesman told the BBC on the record on October 7 that the group had “direct backing” from Iran to orchestrate the massacre.
Salami’s threats on Wednesday were in response to an airstrike in Syria targeting the IRGC, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. The airstrike eliminated 17 people, according to PressTV, including IRGC “military adviser” Saeed Abyar, reportedly a member of the IRGC Quds Force, its foreign terrorist operations outfit. The Israeli government has not commented on the airstrike, much less confirmed its involvement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a regional non-governmental organization, also reported that 17 people died in the airstrike, both Iranian and Syrian fighters. Despite repeated threats from Tehran to destroy Israel, the Israeli government remains on high alert of an Iranian attack given Iran’s continued support of terrorists targeting Israel.
The “crimes against humanity” in question were the IDF operations to neutralize Hamas in Gaza, which it controls. The operations continue to this day, seeking to eliminate Hamas terror operations hubs, weapons caches, and other strategic facilities.
Amir-Abdollahian died in a helicopter crash in May alongside Iranian President Raisi and six others.