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 the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Iranian media.
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This is the fifth raid in eight days targeting the Syriawhere theIran 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 », affirmed the ministry which added that the strike had “ completely destroyed the building » located in Mazzeh, a neighborhood that is home to embassies and United Nations buildings.
“ All those inside were killed or injured “, continued the ministry. The Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faisal Mekdad, condemned a “ heinous terrorist attack ” who killed “ a certain number of innocent people » in a press release taken up by the official Syrian press agency Sana. “ Israeli occupation entity cannot impact Iran-Syria ties “, 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 destroy Iranian embassy annex building 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 of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus “, Iranian state television Irib said. The Quds Force is the foreign operations arm of the Guardians. The Iranian 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 government positions, pro-Iranian groups like Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian military targets since the start of the war in that country in 2011. The strikes intensified since the 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.
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