Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander within the IRGC, amongst not less than 5 killed, Iranian state media stories.
A number of individuals have been killed in an Israeli air strike that flattened the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, in response to Iranian state media and Syrian authorities.
Brigadier Common Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander within the elite Quds Drive of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was amongst not less than 5 individuals killed within the assault, Iranian state media reported on Monday.
Iran’s Ambassador Hossein Akbari, who was not injured, stated not less than 5 individuals had been killed within the assault, together with three army personnel, and that Tehran’s response could be “harsh”.
Reporters on the scene in Damascus’s Mezzeh district, the place the consulate is situated, noticed smoke rising from rubble, and emergency automobiles parked exterior.
Syrian International Minister Faisal Mekdad denounced the “terrorist attack”.
“We strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus killing a number of innocent people,” Mekdad stated in an announcement cited by Syrian state information company SANA.
Iran’s international minister Hossein Amirabdollahian described the assault “as a violation of all international obligations and conventions” and blamed Israel.
When requested concerning the assault, an Israeli army spokesperson instructed journalists: “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”
Since Israel launched its battle on the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7 following an assault by the Palestinian group Hamas, Israel has ramped up air strikes in Syria in opposition to Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Iran’s IRGC, each of which help the federal government of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
The strike in Damascus comes simply days after Israeli air strikes killed dozens of individuals in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, amid fears that the Gaza battle might result in a broader regional escalation.
Ali Vaez, director of the Worldwide Disaster Group’s Iran Undertaking, says Israel’s alleged assault on Iran’s consulate in Syria is “akin to targeting another country on its own soil”.
“Overall this seems to still be a low-simmer regional war. It’s not yet an all-out regional conflict, but it does appear that Israel is trying to do everything in its power to expand the conflict,” Vaez instructed Al Jazeera.
“[This] puts Israel in a win-win situation because Israel knows Iran doesn’t want to get dragged into a regional war, so if it escalates its attacks against Iranian assets and personnel in Syria, it probably will be cost free, and if Iran does respond and retaliate, then it becomes a justified pretext for expanding the war.”