Revolutionary Guards Member Dies on Mission, U.K.-based Agency Reports

A Revolutionary Guards aerospace expert has died in a car accident while on a mission, a London-based Iranian opposition news agency reported Sunday in what would be the third death of a Guards official in three weeks.

According to the report by Iran International, Ali Kamani, a member of the Guards' Aerospace Force, was on a mission in the city of Khomein in western Iran.

In May, the deputy commander of the Guards' elite Quds Force, Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, was shot dead in Tehran; Iran has attributed the killing to Israel. According to The New York Times, which cited an intelligence official, Israel has told U.S. officials that it was responsible.

Since the incident, Iran has threatened reprisals against Israel both in Israel and abroad.

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According to The Times, Israel said the assassination of Khodaei was a warning to Iran to halt operations of an elite group within the Quds Force, which oversees Iran's military operations abroad.

This month, Iran reported the death of another Quds Force colonel. Quoting an unknown official, Iran's IRNA news agency said Col. Ali Esmailzadeh died during an “incident in his residence” in the city of Karaj, around 35 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Tehran.

Also Sunday, an Israeli source told Haaretz that Turkey had exposed an Iranian ring that planned to attack Israeli targets in Turkey.