Top Iran colonel is slain

A senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed outside his home in Tehran on Sunday by gunmen on a motorbike, state TV reported.

Although the Guard gave only scant detail about the daylight attack in the heart of Iran’s capital, the group blamed the killing on “global arrogance,” typically code for the US and Israel.

That accusation, as well as the style of the brazen killing, raised the possibility of a link with other motorbike slayings previously attributed to Israel, such as those targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The two assailants shot Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei five times in his unarmored Iranian-made Kia Pride, state media said, near a street housing Iran’s parliament.