After the killing of Razi Mousavi, a prominent leader in the Quds Force, in an Israeli strike in Syria, one of his colleagues, an Iranian military officer, revealed that Israel had previously killed a prominent member of Hezbollah, Mustafa Badreddine, when he was at the office of his primary target, Razi Mousavi. This was stated in an interview with the Tasnim news agency, closely associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Ali Salehi, nicknamed Abu Turab, disclosed that Israel had attempted several times to assassinate Razi Mousavi, indicating, "It targeted his workplace multiple times, but did not succeed in killing him." He mentioned that Razi Mousavi "was one of the senior advisors of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria and played a role in the region for about 25 years," adding that he was the only one who knew about Qassem Soleimani's travels.
Salehi added that during one of the Israeli operations, Razi Mousavi's office was targeted, resulting in the death of the military and intelligence branch leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon and advisor to Hassan Nasrallah, Mustafa Badreddine, known as Dhul Fiqar. It is worth noting that this operation was conducted by Israel on May 13, 2016, in Syria, and a week later, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced Badreddine's death, stating at that time that the party did not blame Israeli forces for his death in Syria but directed accusations toward "takfiris."
For his part, Jaafar Asadi, the former commander of Iranian forces in Syria and a colleague of Razi Mousavi, mentioned that Israel located Mousavi with the help of spies. Asadi noted, "Israel targeted the same location in recent weeks, believing that Razi Mousavi was there, but he was not present at that time. With the help of the spies, they were able to pinpoint his exact location." This Iranian military leader did not provide any additional details about these "spies."
Pro-government Iranian social media published a video attributed to a report by Israeli Channel 14, claiming that the channel aired it last year on July 4. The report described Razi Mousavi as "the mastermind behind the transfer of Iranian weapons to Syria and Hezbollah... the military leader who acts as a link between Iran and Syria and poses a serious threat to Israel's security." Razi Mousavi is among the most experienced advisors in the Quds Force, the unit responsible for external operations in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Iranian official media. He is also the highest-ranking Quds Force commander killed outside Iran after Major General Qassem Soleimani, the then commander of the force, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq on January 3, 2020.
