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Iran has dismissed Hossein Taeb, head of the Revolutionary Guards intelligence services, Iranian state television reported Thursday without further explanation. He was appointed advisor to the commander of the Guardians and replaced by General Mohammad Kazemi.
The Revolutionary Guard, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced this Thursday, June 23, that it had replaced its intelligence chief, Hossein Taeb, who had been in office for twelve years.
“The head of the Guardians, General Hossein Salami, has appointed General Mohammad Kazemi as head of the intelligence services,” his spokesman said in a statement. Hossein Taeb has been appointed adviser to General Salami, commander of the Guardians.
Before taking over as head of Revolutionary Guards intelligence in 2009, Hossein Taeb worked for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the Iranian institutional establishment.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard appoints Mohamad Kazemi as a replacement for Hosein Taeb, who will become an adviser to the head of the body, Hosein Salami, without the reasons for this decision having been disclosed. https://t.co/WaxUqIkfPx
– Borja Aranda (@borja_aranda) June 23, 2022
Several members killed
General Salami appointed Hossein Taeb, who is a cleric, as his own adviser, according to the statement.
The replacement of the intelligence chief of the Guardians, a body designated as a terrorist group by the United States, comes as several members of the ideological wing of the Iranian military have been killed in recent weeks.
On June 13, Ali Kamani, a member of the Guardians’ aerospace division, was killed while on a mission in Khomein, in the central province of Markazi, the Guardians said in a statement without giving details.
In early June, Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, commander of the Guardians’ external operations unit, the Quds Force, was killed “in an accident at his home”, according to the official Irna news agency.
Israel and Iran, shadow war
Iran and Israel have been waging a shadow war for years, but tensions have risen after a series of high-profile incidents that Tehran has blamed on Israel.
On May 22, Guards Colonel Sayyad Khodai, 50, was killed outside his home in the eastern Iranian capital by motorcycle assailants who shot him five times.
Iranian state television said Khodai was a member of the Qods Force and was “known” in Syria, where Iran has deployed “military advisers”.
The Guardians described Khodai as a “sanctuary defender,” a term used for those working on Tehran’s behalf in Syria or Iraq.
The Guardians accused “Zionists” of being behind the murder and vowed revenge.
At the same time, local Turkish media reported on Thursday the arrest of eight people suspected of working for an Iranian intelligence cell planning to kill Israeli tourists in Istanbul.
Last week, Israel urged its citizens to immediately leave Turkey over threats from Iranian agents.
*With AFP; adapted from its French version
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