Mansour Rasouli, Hassan Sayad Khodaei, Ali Esmaelzadeh and Ayoob Entezari were all killed in the last month. What ties them together and where does Israel fit in?
Four Iranians have died under mysterious circumstances and one was kidnapped in the capital of Tehran, all in the past month, and all in incidents blamed on Israel.
The deaths come as tensions continue to increase between Israel and Iran.
Target #1: Mansour Rasouli
It all started with the abduction of Mansour Rasouli in April.
Rasouli, a purported member of the IRGC admitted to Mossad agents in his home in Iran that he was sent to target an Israeli diplomat in Turkey, an American general in Germany and a journalist in France.
Rasouli was later released and denied his earlier confession. But, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the Mossad had “foiled” alleged IRGC plots to assassinate a US general in Germany as well as a journalist in France, and an Israeli diplomat in Turkey.
Target #2: Hassan Sayad Khodaei
Just a few weeks later, on May 22 Hassan Sayad Khodaei was killed in his car outside his home in central Tehran in May.
A senior member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), two alleged Israeli assassins on a motorcycle opened fire on him, killing him.
According to reports, Khodaei was close to former IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad.
He is alleged to have smuggled weapons to Syria and planned kidnappings and attacks against Israeli and Jews around the world. Khodaei also commanded the IRGC’s Quds Force’s Unit 840, a relatively secret unit that builds terror infrastructure and plans attacks against Western targets and opposition groups outside Iran.
Rasouli reportedly operated under Khodaei’s command in Unit 840.
Though Israel has remained officially mum, The New York Times reported that an unnamed Israeli official informed US officials that Jerusalem was responsible for Khodaei’s killing.
Target #3: Ali Esmaelzadeh
One week later Colonel Ali Esmaelzadeh, who also served in Unit 802 along with Rasouli and Khodaei, died after falling from the balcony of his home in the Jahan Nama area of Karaj.
The Saudi-financed, London-based Persian television channel Iran International first reported Esmaeldzadeh’s death and said that the IRGC told his family that he had committed suicide after he separated from his wife.
But, the report said, “sources said that after Sayyad Khodaei’s killing the IRGC intelligence looking for security leaks from within the Qods Force became suspicious of Esmailzadeh and decided to eliminate him by organizing a suicide scenario.”
Khodaei and Esmaelzadeh were said by Iran International to have been close colleagues.
All official Iranian media outlets have reported his death as an accident or suicide. Unlike Khodaei, the IRGC did not issue any statement following his death and his funeral took place in his home province of Hamedan under a media blackout.
According to The Times, two senior defense officials said that Israel did not kill Esmaelzadeh.
Just days after Esmaelzadeh’s death, On May 25, a Defense Ministry engineer was killed in a drone attack at the Parchin military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology.
Target #4: Ayoob Entezari
Then on May 31rst, Iranian aerospace scientist Ayoob Entezari died in a hospital in the central province of Yazd after he was allegedly poisoned during dinner. The man who hosted the dinner reportedly fled the country shortly after.
Entezari, who held a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Tehran’s Sharif University, was reportedly involved in Iran’s missile and drone industry. According to Iran International, Yazd’s governor-general’s office said that Entezari was a martyr, a turn used for those who die while in the line of duty.
The Jewish State has been blamed for many deaths in Iran, mostly nuclear scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who many referred to as the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons project and was assassinated in November 2020.
But the mysterious deaths of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force officers all serving in the same elite unit, an engineer and senior scientist involved in the field of aerospace engineering, do not seem like a coincidence.
They are a clear change in targets in Israel’s war-between-wars campaign (MABAM) that aims to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon as well as to prevent their entrenchment in Syria and to bring an end to its regional hostility.