Israeli strikes hit an Iranian consulate annex in Syria’s capital Monday, state media said, amid rising regional tensions due to the Gaza war, as Iranian state media reported at least five people were killed.
State media said a senior commander with Quds Force of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was among the dead.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed the killing of a leader of the Quds Force, one of five branches of the IRGC.
Monday’s attack destroyed an annex next to the Iranian embassy that served as the consulate in the western Damascus neighbourhood, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said.
“The Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” the agency said, quoting a Syrian military source.
It was the fifth strike in eight days to hit Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad is widely supported by Iran and its allies.
Iran vowed “decisive response” after the attack. In an interview broadcast on state television Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Damascus, said: “At least five people were killed in the attack which was carried out by F-35 fighter jets.” He did not give the source of his information about the aircraft.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, but the incident will further raise tensions as Israel has intensified its strikes on Iran-linked militant groups during its war in Gaza against Hamas.
US President Joe Biden is aware of reports of Israeli air strikes in Damascus and the “team is looking into it”, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
Agence France-Presse correspondents at the scene confirmed the building next to the embassy, an annex, had been levelled, in an upscale neighbourhood of Damascus.
Agence France-Presse images showed a pile of rubble about two stories high beside a fenced compound.
Iranian media also reported that the strikes in Damascus completely destroyed the annex building, and that the ambassador was unharmed.
“Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not harmed in the Israeli attack,” Iran’s Nour news agency said.
Britain-based group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: “Israeli missiles … destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy … in Damascus, killing six people,” in an initial toll it quickly raised to eight.
19 truffle hunters in Syria killed by landmine blast
19 truffle hunters in Syria killed by landmine blast
Syria’s defence ministry said there were many “wounded, killed” in an Israeli strike, and Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad denounced the attack after visiting the site.
“We strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus killing a number of innocent people,” Mekdad said in a statement carried by state media SANA.
SANA earlier reported that “our air-defence systems confronted enemy targets in the vicinity of Damascus”.
Israeli strikes on targets in Syria, mostly Syrian army positions as well as Iran-backed combatants including fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, have intensified since October when Israel began fighting Hezbollah-allied Hamas militants in the Gaza strip.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, Israel’s arch enemy.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire along the Lebanese border.
The incident in Damascus came three days after the Observatory reported Israeli strikes that killed 53 people in Syria, including 38 soldiers and seven members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, said the monitor.
“Syria and Lebanon have become one extended battleground from the Israeli perspective,” Riad Kahwaji, head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, told Agence France-Presse after the Friday strikes.
“Israel warplanes hit targets in both countries almost daily in a sustained effort to destroy Hezbollah military infrastructure and to also tarnish the group’s image,” he said.
“Israeli strikes have clearly escalated in size and depth” in Lebanon, he added.
Additional reporting by Reuters, dpa
