An Iranian general killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian Golan Heights last week was targeted because he kept his cellphone on - allowing Israeli intelligence to track his whereabouts, Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.
The report published by Al-Joumhouria newspaper Saturday, quoted diplomatic sources as saying that investigations carried out by Hezbollah concluded that Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi had kept his phone on in an area monitored intensively by Israeli intelligence.
The success of the Israeli operation, according to the report, was attributed to the fact that Allahdadi had kept his phone on while traveling from the outskirts of Damascus to join the Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra, allowing Israeli forces to determine his whereabouts.
The attack came days after building began on a joint operations room for Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah officers to manage a unit in the area, Al-Joumhouria reported.
The Israeli strike last Sunday on the convoy in Qunaitra in the Golan Heights killed the general, along with six Hezbollah members, including the son of the late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh. A Lebanese security source told The Daily Star that two Syrian fighters affiliated with Hezbollah were also killed in the strike.
Iranian officials have vowed to strike back at Israel over the attack.
“These martyrdoms proved the need to stick with jihad and provided another indication about the nearing collapse of the Zionist entity. The Zionists must await ruinous thunderbolts after their crime in Qunaitra,” Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaafari, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency Tuesday.
Israel has not officially confirmed it carried out the strike.
