Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

IRGC officer killed in Syria blast; Iran blames Israel

The officer, identified by an Israeli research organization as Col. Daoud Jaafari, was killed by a roadside bomb; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vows to retaliate.

Shipping containers burn at Syria's Latakia port following what Syrian media claim was an Israeli missile strike, Dec. 7, 2021. Source: Screenshot.
Shipping containers burn at Syria’s Latakia port following what Syrian media claim was an Israeli missile strike, Dec. 7, 2021. Source: Screenshot.

Israel was responsible for the death of a senior Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps officer in a roadside bomb blast in Syria on Tuesday, the IRGC said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement included messages of condolences to the officer’s family, and a vow to retaliate, according to a report by Ynet.

The Alma Center, an Israeli defense research organization, said the officer was at the rank of colonel, adding that he has been identified as Daoud Jaafari.

Jaafari’s was “one of the senior members of the air force of the Revolutionary Guards,” Alma stated in a tweet. “At this stage, it is not clear what his exact position is.”

“It is known that the Iranians have ballistic missiles, UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] and air defense arrays deployed and operating in Syria. It is possible that he was involved in the maintenance and operation of one of these arrays. Based on his position, he may have been professionally involved in supervising the transportation of these kinds of weapons to Syria, within Syria, and to Lebanon,” said Alma.

The statement came a day after U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Tehran had agreed to invite inspectors back.
“Iran will administer the strait,” Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.
“These findings provide further evidence of attempts by terrorist groups to exploit civilian infrastructure for terrorist purposes,” said the military.
At the JNS summit, speakers linked Europe’s anti-Israel turn to demographic shifts, anti-Trump sentiment, migration and rising antisemitism.
Iran planned the suicide bombing, and Hezbollah carried it out.
The gunman reportedly wrote a 100-page manifesto targeting women before carrying out the attack.
Benny Gantz, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan S. Tobin, Gilad Erdan, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Nissim Black and leading voices in security, diplomacy, media, law and Jewish communal affairs headline the summit’s third day in Jerusalem.