Commander, five members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards killed in Israeli strike in Syria
An unprecedented Israeli raid targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday, state media reported. Eight people died, including a commander and five members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, according to an NGO.
A crowd and security personnel around the Iranian consulate targeted by strikes in Damascus, Syria, April 1, 2024. © MAHER AL MOUNES / AFP
By: RFI with AFP
Advertisement
Read more
This is the fifth raid in eight days to target
Syria
, where
Iran
and its allies support the power of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Defense Ministry reported several deaths and injuries in the Israeli raid on the Iranian embassy annex in Damascus. “
The Israeli enemy launched airstrikes from the occupied Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus
,” said the ministry, adding that the strike had “
completely destroyed the building
” located in Mazzeh, a neighborhood that shelters embassies and United Nations buildings.
“
All those inside were killed or injured
,” the ministry continued. Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad condemned a “
heinous terrorist attack
” which killed “
a number of innocent people
” in a statement carried by the official Syrian news agency Sana. “
The Israeli occupation entity will not be able to impact the ties between Iran and Syria
,” he insisted.
Revolutionary Guard commander killed
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), this attack left eight people dead, including a commander and five members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards as well as two advisers. “
Israeli missiles destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy in Damascus
,” according to this NGO based in the United Kingdom which has a vast network of sources in the country.
In Tehran, Iranian state media confirmed that an Israeli strike had destroyed an embassy annex. “
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, was martyred in an attack by Zionist regime fighters on the annex from the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus
,” Iranian state television Irib reported. The Quds Force is the foreign operations arm of the Guardians. Iran's Nour news agency added that "
Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Damascus, and his family were not injured in the Israeli attack
."
An AFP correspondent on site confirmed that the embassy annex building had been completely destroyed by the strike. A sign of the importance of the target, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mokdad visited the scene of the raid in the company of the governor of Damascus and other high-ranking official figures, reports our correspondent in the region,
Paul Khalifeh.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in neighboring Syria against Syrian power positions, pro-Iranian groups like Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian military targets since the start of the war in that country in 2011.
The strikes have intensified
since start on October 7 of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah and Iran, enemies of Israel. At the same time, Israeli strikes target Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, from where the pro-Iranian Shiite formation carries out attacks against Israel. Israel rarely comments on its strikes in Syria, but says it would not allow Iran, its archenemy, to gain a foothold on its border.
Also read: Iran withdraws forces from Syria under pressure from the Israeli army
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your inbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Share :
Continue reading on the same themes:
Syria
Israel
Defense