TEHRAN - The assassination of Ali Sayyad-Shirazi was a retaliation for the defeat the terrorist Mujahedin group (MKO) had suffered during the Iran-Iraq war, Army Commander Major General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said.

Pourdastan made the remarks on Monday on the anniversary of Operation Mersad, Fars news agency reported.

Sayyad-Shirazi was the chief-of-staff of the Iranian Armed Forces during the eight-year Iran–Iraq war in 1980s. He was assassinated in 1999 by the MKO.

Operation Mersad was the last major military operation of the Iran-Iraq war, ending in a decisive victory for Iran. The operation involved a successful counterattack against a July 1988 military incursion from Iraq, by a military force of about 7000 members of the MKO.

SP/OSN