Two gunmen on a motorbike killed a prominent member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard outside his home in Tehran on Sunday, state television and other media reported.
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA) said Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodairi “was assassinated during an armed attack on a motorbike in Mohieddin al-Islam Street” in eastern Tehran.
It stated that the accident occurred around 4:00 pm local time (1130 GMT).
The agency published pictures showing a man lying in the driver’s seat of a car, with blood around his shirt collar and right arm.
The Iranian colonel was strapped to his seat belt and the front window on the passenger side was shot.
And the Associated Press, quoting official media, said that the attackers shot the colonel five times in his car in the heart of the capital.
Khodairi reports only identified him as a “defender of the shrines”, in reference to the Iranians who are fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, within the “Quds Force” of the Revolutionary Guards, which oversees military operations outside the country.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Security forces are pursuing the suspected attackers, state television reported, without providing further details or explaining the motive behind the attack.
In a statement, the Revolutionary Guard denounced the “terrorist act” which it claimed was carried out by “elements linked to global arrogance.” The Revolutionary Guards said they had opened an investigation to identify the “aggressor”.