Qasim Fathullahi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was shot and killed in front of his home in Tehran on Tuesday evening, according to Iranian reports. The assassination comes as Iran marks the anniversary of the assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
Fathullahi served as a commander of a Basij base that is under the IRGC's Tharallah Headquarters command near the Imam Sajjad Mosque in Tehran. He was hit by four bullets, according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.
A person who was with Fathullahi was injured in the shooting as well and was hospitalized. Apartments nearby showed signs of burglary and police are investigating the incident.
The assassination took place as anti-government protests continued to sweep Iran over 100 days since they began in mid-September. Throughout the protests, members of the IRGC and Basij have been reportedly killed and injured in a number of attacks. The IRGC and Basij are some of the main forces used to suppress protesters.
String of assassinations have targeted IRGC officials in recent years
The assassination is the latest in a string of similar incidents that have targeted IRGC officials in recent years.
In November, an IRGC member named Reza Dastani was killed in Isfahan while on his way to work.
That assassination came just days after IRGC Col. Davoud Jafari was killed in a roadside bombing near Damascus that Iran has blamed on Israel and almost exactly two years after the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran.
Tasnim News Agency reported that Jafari served as an adviser for the IRGC Aerospace Force in Syria and was one of the Iranian officials responsible for the seizure of two US Navy command boats carrying 10 US personnel in the Persian Gulf in January 2016.
In May, IRGC Quds Force Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodayari was shot dead in his car in front of his home in Tehran. The assassination was blamed on Israel.
Khodayari was reportedly deputy commander of the Quds Force's Unit 840, a secretive unit responsible for terrorist operations against Israeli and Western targets outside of Iran.