Iranian leaders accuse Israeli missile strike of killing senior Revolutionary Guards member

| Middle East | The Guardian Iranian leaders have accused Israel of a missile strike on a vehicle in Syria on Sunday that killed a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander – the highest-ranking Iranian military officer to be killed in the country’s decades-long involvement in its civil war. Major General Mohammed Ali Allahdadi is said to have been killed along with several Hizbollah fighters in an attack on a village in Quneitra province, close to the border with Israel. His death is seen as a major setback to the wider Iranian ambition to expand its presence in the region, which has been pursued through support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and proxy forces in Iraq and Lebanon. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised revenge, calling Allahdadi “one of the illustrious commanders of the jihad”. His death “increases our determination and will to fight the Zionist regime,” he said. “If these interventions happen again, even stronger reactions will occur.” The foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, reiterated the threat in a statement. “The criminal and terrorist resonance of this move will not go without a response,” he said.