Iran's Revolutionary Guards Accuse "Zionists" Of Assassinating Colonel

Guards Colonel Sayyad Khodai, 50, was fatally shot on May 22 outside his home in the east of the Iranian capital by assailants on motorcycles.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday accused "Zionists" of shooting dead a colonel in Tehran earlier this month, days after Israel reportedly told the US it was behind the killing.

Guards Colonel Sayyad Khodai, 50, was fatally shot on May 22 outside his home in the east of the Iranian capital by assailants on motorcycles. He was hit with five bullets, according to official media.

It was the most high-profile killing inside Iran since the November 2020 murder of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh - an act Tehran blamed on arch-enemy Israel.

Khodai was killed "by the most vicious people, the Zionists, and God willing, we will avenge his death," head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Major General Hossein Salami said during a visit to his family, according to the Guards' Sepah News website.