Iranian websites list Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei as deputy director of the Quds Force’s technological and weapons development, whose purview likely includes the flagship Iranian project to alter Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal into precision missiles capable of striking Israeli targets.

Experts familiar with the issue believe this definition is incorrect. According to Israeli and Western intelligence assessments, Khodaei holds the rank of brigadier general and was very close to the late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qasem Soleimani who was assassinated in Iraq in January 2020. Khodaei, these sources say, was in charge of terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, which the IRGC is attempting with growing intensity, albeit less than marked success. Khodaei was reportedly involved in several attempts on the lives of Israelis abroad, including the 2012 car bombing against an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi, which seriously injured the envoy’s wife.

Whatever his job entailed, on May 22, two unidentified figures on a motorcycle rode up to the car he was driving and shot him dead. The state news agency IRNA reported he was shot five times as he returned home near Mojahedin-e-Islam Street at about 4 p.m. local time. Reportedly, the assailants made sure he was dead and sped away from the scene. Eyewitnesses reported that the entrance into the small alley where the attack occurred was blocked by a white vehicle, which also sped away once the attack was completed. Khodaei was pronounced dead at the scene.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Iranians did not automatically accuse Israel’s Mossad of the assassination, declaring instead that they would take revenge on the assassins. Despite Iran’s announcement that a manhunt was underway for the attackers, they seem to have disappeared.