Israeli claim: Iran elite forces killed in Gaza War
TEL AVIV Ñ Israel's military killed several Iranian military
advisers deployed in the Gaza Strip, sources said.
The Israeli sources said the military killed an unspecified number of
advisers from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps during the 22-day
war with Hamas, which ended on Jan. 18. They said the IRGC officers helped
the Hamas regime and Islamic Jihad fire BM-21 Grad rockets from
urban areas, Middle East Newsline reported.
"We believe there were dozens of IRGC personnel in the Gaza Strip during
the war," an Israeli source said. "Some were killed; others went into
hiding,
and others escaped."
The sources said IRGC sent officers to the Gaza Strip to help Hamas
improve the range and accuracy of missiles and rockets. IRGC was also
authorized to help establish facilities to produce the Grad and other
extended-range Katyusha-class rockets in the Gaza Strip.
Israel expects Iran to expand the IRGC presence in the Gaza Strip amid
the ceasefire with the Jewish state. The sources said Iran plans to build a
Hamas arsenal of rockets with a range of up to 70 kilometers. They said this
would include the Fajr-3 and Fajr-4 rockets.
The IRGC presence was arranged in 2008 by the late Hamas Interior
Minister Said Siyam, the sources said. Siyam was killed in an Israeli air
strike on Gaza City on Jan. 17, hours before the unilateral ceasefire took
effect.
"Siyam's death removes Hamas's key liasion with Iran," an Israeli source
said. "But there are others who could fill his shoes."
