{"id":1308,"date":"2006-01-10T00:21:55","date_gmt":"2006-01-10T06:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2006-01-10T00:24:59","modified_gmt":"2006-01-10T06:24:59","slug":"top-revolutionary-guard-dies-in-iran-air-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1308","title":{"rendered":"Top Revolutionary Guard Dies in Iran Air Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. And a crash<\/a> may be just a crash.<\/p>\n

Ahmad Kazemi, appointed last year as ground forces commander of Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Revolutionary Guards, was among 13 people killed on Monday in a plane crash near the city of Urumiyeh, north-west Iran<\/p>\n

General Kazemi was one of a wave of promotions made last August by Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after new president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad took office.<\/p>\n

Separate from Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regular armed forces, the Revolutionary Guards have land, sea and air forces, and run a network of business activities. Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reformists have long accused the Guards of playing too political a role.<\/p>\n

The aircraft, a French-made Falcon jet, came down because landing gear jammed, reported IRNA, the official news agency, which put General Kazemi among the 11 commanders killed.<\/p>\n

This was Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second military plane crash in two months. On December 6, around 105 people, mainly journalists, died when a US-made military transport Hercules C-130 crashed into a residential building near Tehran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mehrabad airport after suffering engine trouble.<\/p>\n

Iran has a patchy recent history of air safety, with spare parts for both military and civilian aircraft subject to US sanctions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I noted<\/a> earlier, military aviation is a dangerous business. Still, given the recent<\/a> radical<\/a> behavior<\/a> at the top of the Iranian government, I doubt I’m the only one with thoughts of the word purge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even if, after all is said and done, the problem stems from continued American sanctions, do not turn here for tears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. And a crash may be just a crash. Ahmad Kazemi, appointed last year as ground forces commander of Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Revolutionary Guards, was among 13 people killed on Monday in a plane crash near the city of Urumiyeh, north-west Iran General Kazemi was one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-central-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}