A fifth raid in eight days on Syria. An unprecedented Israeli raid targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday, state media reported, killing eight people according to an NGO, in an extremely tense regional context against a backdrop of war in Gaza, the power of Bashar al-Assad. being supported by Iran and its allies.
The Syrian Defense Ministry reported several deaths and injuries in this Israeli raid on the Iranian embassy annex in Damascus. A commander of the Revolutionary Guards, five of its members and two advisers were killed, according to a new report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
A completely destroyed building
“The Israeli enemy launched airstrikes from the occupied Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” the ministry said. He added that the strike had “completely destroyed the building,” located in Mazzeh, a neighborhood that houses embassies and United Nations buildings. “All those inside were killed or injured,” the ministry continued.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria, announced that it “confirmed the assassination of a senior official who served as head of the Quds Force for Syria and Lebanon, two Iranian advisors and five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.” This commander belongs to the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for external operations.
He reported eight deaths in this raid. “Israeli missiles destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy in Damascus,” according to this NGO based in the United Kingdom but which has a vast network of sources in the country.
The ambassador and his family unhurt
In Tehran, Iranian state media confirmed that an Israeli strike had destroyed an annex to the Iranian embassy in Syria. 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.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in neighboring Syria against Syrian government positions, pro-Iranian groups, such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and Iranian military targets since the start of the war in that country in 2011. The strikes have 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.