The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced they had replaced their intelligence chief Hossein Taebwho had been in office for 12 years.
“The head of the Guardians, General Hossein Salami, appointed General Mohamad Kazemi as head of the intelligence services,” a statement said.
The replacement of the intelligence chief of the Guardians –designated as a terrorist group by the United States– comes after some members of this ideological branch of the Iranian army have been killed in recent weeks.
On June 13, Ali Kamani, a member of the Guardians’ aerospace division, died on mission in Khomeinin the central province of Markazi, the group said without giving details.
more deaths
Shortly before, in the same month of June, Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, commander of external operations of the Guardians, the Al Qods Force, died in an “accident at home”according to the official IRNA news agency.
On 22 May, Guardians Colonel Sayyad Khodai, 50, was shot dead by assailants on a motorbike outside his home in eastern Tehran.
The Guardians they accused the “Zionists” of this murder and swore revenge.
Taeb, who has held the position for 12 years and is a cleric, will now act as adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami.
Dispute with Israel
Tehran has directly accused Tel Aviv ofand some of those deaths and in others it has done so indirectly.
Iran and Israel are engaged in a covert war that includes cyberattacks, alleged assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and ship sabotage, although neither country publicly acknowledges its actions.
This week, Israel announced that it is promoting the creation of a military air alliance, together with the United States and other Middle Eastern countries, to make a common front against Iran.
Likewise, Israel recently denounced that Iran seeks to attack or kill Israeli citizens in Turkish territory, which caused the Israeli authorities last week to recommend that its population not travel to Turkey, especially Istanbul.
Source: AFP and EFE
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