An Israeli air strike outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday killed a senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, three security sources and Iranian state media said.

The sources told Reuters that the adviser, known as Sayyed Razi Mousavi, was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.

Iran’s state television interrupted its regular news broadcast to announce that Mousavi had been killed, describing him as one of the Guards’ oldest advisers in Syria. It said he had been “among those accompanying Qassem Soleimani”, the head of the Guards’ elite Quds Force who was killed in a US drone attack in Iraq in 2020.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the assassination of Mousavi showed weakness on the part of Israel.

“This act is a sign of the Zionist regime’s frustration and weakness in the region for which it will certainly pay the price,” Iranian media cited Raisi as saying. The Revolutionary Guards said Israel would suffer for killing Mousavi, who held the Guards’ rank of brigadier-general. “Undoubtedly, the usurper Zionist regime will pay for this crime,” the Guards said.