NYT: Israel Denies Involvement in Death of Iranian Officer Who ‘Fell Off Roof

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), like these members shown in a handout pic
AFP
Deborah Brand

Israeli defense officials have denied Israel’s involvement in the killing of a second senior ranking officer from the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the New York Times said in a report published Saturday.

Four Iranian officials have died under mysterious circumstances in Iran over the past month, with Tehran blaming Israel for all four deaths.

Col. Ali Esmailzadeh’s death, which was first reported on Friday, was the second in two weeks of officers from the Quds Force’s Unit 840, a shadowy unit in charge of terrorist operations against Israeli and Western targets overseas.

The unnamed Israeli officials were cited by the Times a day after Iran International, a London-based Iranian opposition website, charged that the IRGC had killed Esmailzadeh for espionage after he had allegedly provided intelligence leading to the assassination of his close colleague, Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari.

All state-affiliated outlets in Iran have reported his death, allegedly from falling off his roof, as either an accident or suicide. 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 as opposed to in Tehran, marking a departure of common protocol for an officer of his rank.

Esmailzadeh’s colleague Khodayari was gunned down last month outside his home in broad daylight by two unknown assailants on motorcycles who shot five bullets at point-blank range from a weapon equipped with a silencer. Khodayari was the deputy commander of Unit 840, and had allegedly been planning attacks against Israelis. Iran blamed Israel for the attack and vowed revenge.

Ayoob Entezari, an aerospace scientist also died last week under mysterious circumstances, according to Iranian reports. Entezari, who worked on developing missiles and drones, died after suffering a bout of food poisoning at a dinner he attended. The man who hosted the dinner has since fled Iran, Israeli media reports alleged.

Iranian journalists over the weekend unearthed pictures of Entezari showing former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani around his place of work at Iran’s Ghadir Industrial Turbines Company (GITCO)in 2019.

 

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