Palestinian resistance groups have strongly condemned the assassination of a member of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a terrorist attack in the Iranian capital Tehran, equating the incident to the targeted killing of former Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad movement Fathi Shaqaqi.
The Islamic Jihad movement said in a statement on Monday that the murder of Hassan Sayyad Khodaei is reminiscent of the assassination of Palestinian resistance leader Fathi Shaqaqi, who was fatally shot six times on October 26, 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Malta’s northeastern coastal town of Sliema by a hit team composed of two agents working for the Israeli Mossad spy agency.
The statement added that enemies gunned down the former Islamic Jihad co-founder in the false hope of stopping the resistance front. This is while the resistance tree grows bigger with the blood of more martyrs shed.
Moreover, the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement denounced the killing of the IRGC member.
“We condemn the cowardly assassination of Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a terrorist operation perpetrated by the Zionist Mossad,” it said in a statement.
The movement added, “We emphasize that this criminal operation underscores the need to step up efforts by the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in order to thwart the ongoing [Israeli] aggression.”
The statement noted that terrorist attacks against the Muslim Ummah prove the criminal nature of the Tel Aviv regime and its allies as the sworn and worst enemies of Muslims.
According to Iran’s official news agency IRNA, the terrorist attack that claimed the life of Khodaei took place in the Iranian capital at around 4 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) on Sunday, when the IRGC member was dismounting his car to enter his home in an eastern neighborhood of the Iranian capital.
He was reportedly assassinated after two motorcyclists shot him five times before fleeing the scene.
IRIB news agency reported that three bullets hit him in the head and two bullets hit his hand.
The IRGC issued a statement soon after the assassination, saying that its former member was assassinated in a terrorist attack by counterrevolutionary elements.
The statement condoled with his family, adding that necessary measures have been taken to identify and arrest the assailant or assailants.