Number two of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard implicated in AMIA attack died of heart attack

brigadier general Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Hejazi, considered the “number two” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the elite ideological and military body of the Persian regime, died of a heart attack on Sunday afternoon, as reported by the Islamic Republic.

The Revolutionary Guard himself announced Hejazi’s death “after long years of tireless and selfless service in sensitive places to defend the Islamic revolution and the holy Islamic Republic of Iran”.

“The pious, revolutionary and sincere follower of the Supreme Leader spent the eight years of the Iraq-imposed war at the front, playing a heroic and unforgettable role in attracting, organizing and sending fighters to the front lines against the military. Baathist of Saddam Husseim. and the mercenaries of the global oppressive system, ”the statement added.

Israel appointed Heyazi in 2019 as head of the precision missile manufacturing program for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah., and participated in the coordination of the offensive in Iraq against the Islamic State (IS).

In addition, he was accused by Israel of being one of the planners of the 1994 attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in which 85 people died in Buenos Aires.

According to international intelligence reports, Hejazi was involved in planning the attack, after which avoided international travel on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant, depending on what is logged by the portal Iton Gadol.

Born in 1956 in the city of Isfahan, Hejazi joined the Guard after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and headed the Basij Volunteer Paramilitary Corps for ten years. During his tenure, force has become a pillar of the political and security apparatus of the Persian regime.

Hejazi assumed the post of deputy commander of the Quds Force in April last year, during which he replaced the powerful general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike during a visit to Iraq on January 3, 2020.

Among his latest activities, he led the paramilitary Guard forces in Lebanon, where Iranian media reported that he had joined forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) came into being in 1979 after the Islamic revolution which deposed the Shah of Persia and established the current theocratic regime led by the Ayatollahs.

Also known as the pasdaran (“guardians” in Farsi), this paramilitary force was considered to be a branch of the Iranian armed forces responsible for precisely protecting the theocratic regime and the Islamic republic, as opposed to the more traditional border protection role of the army, navy and air force.

It is believed that currently It has approximately 120,000 members assigned to land, naval and air units, and the Quds Force, which is its overseas operations division. In addition, it controls the Basij militias, which have 90,000 other members.

IRGC troops fought like paramilitary units in the war between Iran and Iraq between 1980 and 1988; in the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 and during the Israeli invasion of 2006; and more recently in the civil wars in Syria and Iraq.

More specifically in the Syrian conflict which began in 2011, they have become one of the main allies of the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad and one of the reasons why he did not fall.

His involvement as a sponsor of terrorism and his destabilizing role accused by the United States, which in April 2019 designated it as a terrorist organization, are linked to the actions of the Quds Force, which precisely directs Iranian operations in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon,among other countries.

In this role, the Quds Force supports and trains terrorist groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, in addition to Houthi militias in Yemen already different Shiite groups in Syria and Afghanistan.

Hejazi’s death represents another blow to the Revolutionary Guards, following the explosion that occurred last week at the Natanz nuclear power plant.

With information from Europa Press

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