IRGC member assassinated in Isfahan, Iran

The assassination comes just days after IRGC Col. Davoud Jafari was killed in a roadside bombing near Damascus that Iran has blamed on Israel.

 Members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, gather around the coffins of their fellow guards, who were killed by a suicide car bomb, during the funerals in Isfahan, Iran February 16, 2019.  (photo credit:  MORTEZA SALEHI/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY/VIA REUTERS )
Members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, gather around the coffins of their fellow guards, who were killed by a suicide car bomb, during the funerals in Isfahan, Iran February 16, 2019.
(photo credit: MORTEZA SALEHI/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY/VIA REUTERS )

A member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was assassinated in Isfahan on Monday, according to local officials.

The member, identified as Reza Dastani, was killed on his way to work. Efforts are underway to identify and arrest the assailants.

The General Department of Public Relations and International Affairs of Isfahan Governorate, Jan Nishari, told ISNA that additional information about the intelligence measures taken to identify the assailants would be released in a few hours.

Following prior assassinations of Iranian officials

The assassination comes just days after IRGC Col. Davoud Jafari was killed in a roadside bombing near Damascus that Iran has blamed on Israel.

Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard (credit: REUTERS/MORTEZA NIKOUBAZL)
Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard (credit: REUTERS/MORTEZA NIKOUBAZL)

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported that Jafari served as an adviser for the IRGC Aerospace Force in Syria and was among one of the Iranian officials responsible for the seizure of two US Navy command boats carrying 10 US personnel in the Persian Gulf in January 2016.

The Intelli Times blog revealed on Saturday night that Jafari was involved in the deployment of Iranian air defense systems in Syria and Lebanon, a program led by IRGC Brig.-Gen. Fereydoun Mohammadi Saghaei. A photo of Jafari showed that he had the insignia of the air defense units on his uniform.

The assassination also comes almost exactly two years after the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.