TEHRAN (VINnews) — Israel has privately claimed responsibility for the assassination of a colonel in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards terror group, according to the NY Times.
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Col. Sayad Khodayee was shot and killed outside his home on a quiet residential street in Tehran on Sunday. In typical Mossad style, two gunmen on motorcycles approached his car and fired five bullets into it.
Iran, not surprisingly, blamed Israel for the killing.
The New York Times is now reporting that according to a US intelligence official, Israel informed American officials that it was indeed behind the killing.
The Israelis told US officials the killing was meant as a warning to Iran to halt the operations of a covert group within the Quds Force known as Unit 840. Unit 840’s mission is to lure, abduct and assassinate Israeli civilians and officials around the world (and possibly other foreign nationals).
Israeli officials said Colonel Khodayee was the deputy commander of Unit 840, and was involved in planning cross-border plots against Israelis and other foreigners.
The United States has designated the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group. Iran has demanded that the designation be removed as a condition for restoring the Obama nuclear deal, but after consideration, the United States has reportedly refused to do so.
Yet oddly, the Israelis say they did not kill that American reporter.