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Iran has attributed a strike on Damascus to Israel, asserting its “right to respond” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the death of four of its members in the incident.
Iran has attributed the strike on Damascus to Israel, asserting its “right to respond” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the death of four of its members in the incident. An Israeli strike on Damascus killed at least 10 people, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Syria spy chief and his deputy. The strike targeted a high-security zone in the Mazzeh neighborhood known to house leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and pro-Iran Palestinian factions. Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syria, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces, intensifying attacks since the war with Hamas began.
“An attack targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression,” the official SANA news agency reported. It did not say if there were any casualties.An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.Civil defence were busy searching for survivors under the rubble of the totally collapsed building, he said. The Mazzeh area is also home to the United Nations’ headquarters, embassies and restaurants.”I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke,” a resident told AFP.”The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances,” he added.Hundreds of Israeli strikes During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions. But it has intensified attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas, which like Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement is an ally of Iran, began on October 7.In December, an Israeli air strike killed a senior general with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the military force said.Razi Moussavi was the most senior commander of the Guards’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, to be killed outside Iran since a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020 killed the Force’s commander, Qasem Soleimani.
