Iran accused Israel on Saturday of an assault in Damascus that killed 5 Revolutionary Guard members and vowed to retaliate for the most recent assault on the Islamic republic’s personnel overseas.
President Ebrahim Raisi mentioned Tehran wouldn’t let the “cowardly homicide” go unanswered.
Israel has been accused of intensifying assaults on senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon – supporters of the Palestinian militant group Hamas – elevating fears that the combating within the Gaza Strip may unfold additional.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it has misplaced 5 members within the assault it blamed on Israel, its regional arch-enemy.
Hamas, which is backed by Tehran, additionally condemned what it referred to as a “heinous crime.”
In a press release, Raisi condemned “this cowardly assault.”
“There isn’t a doubt that the continuation of such terrorist and felony acts… won’t proceed with no response” from Iran, he mentioned.
Earlier, Iranian Overseas Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani additionally blamed Israel, saying Tehran “reserves the best to answer organized terrorism on the applicable time and place.”
Iran’s Mehr information company, citing an knowledgeable supply, mentioned that “the top of the Revolutionary Guard’s Syria intelligence service” and his deputy had been amongst these “tortured in Israel’s assault on Syria.”
Ten individuals had been killed within the Israeli assault on the capital’s Mazzeh neighborhood, in response to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Iranian media reported that one of many useless was “Basic Sadegh Omidzadeh, liable for intelligence in Syria for the Quds Power”, the IRGC’s overseas operations wing.
There isn’t a official affirmation of his dying.
The Guards information company Sepah named 4 of the useless as Hojatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi.
The mid-morning strike, which despatched a big plume of smoke into the sky, was additionally reported by Syrian state media.
Official information company SANA mentioned a residential constructing in Mazzeh was the goal of what it referred to as “Israeli aggression.”
The Protection Ministry mentioned the assault killed “a lot of civilians.”
– A whole lot of strikes –
The constructing was cordoned off whereas rescuers searched the rubble for survivors.
“I heard the explosion clearly within the western Mazzeh space and I noticed an enormous cloud of smoke,” one resident informed AFP, requesting anonymity resulting from safety issues.
“The sound was like a rocket explosion.”
Requested in regards to the assault, the Israeli army informed AFP: “We don’t touch upon studies from overseas media.”
Throughout greater than a decade of civil warfare in Syria, Israel has launched lots of of airstrikes, primarily focusing on Iranian-backed forces and Syrian military positions.
However such assaults have intensified for the reason that warfare between Israel and Hamas, which just like the Hezbollah motion in Lebanon is an ally of Iran, started on October 7.
The Observatory mentioned the assault hit a four-story constructing “the place leaders of Iran met.”
The Britain-based warfare monitor with a community of sources inside Syria mentioned the focused constructing belonged to the IRGC and that Mazzeh is named a high-security zone the place leaders of the IRGC and pro-Iranian Palestinian factions reside.
Additionally close by are the United Nations headquarters, embassies and eating places.
“They actually focused high-ranking members” of Tehran-backed teams or Iranian forces, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Observatory, informed AFP.
– Gunfights –
Saturday’s suspected Israeli assault was the second high-profile focused killing in Syria in lower than a month.
In December, an airstrike killed a senior Iranian common in Syria.
Razi Moussavi was the highest Quds Power commander killed outdoors Iran since a US drone strike in Baghdad killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.
On January 2, in neighboring Lebanon, the place the highly effective Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway, Hamas deputy Saleh al-Aruri was killed in an assault extensively blamed on Israel.
Days later, Israel killed Hezbollah’s prime commander, Wissam Tawil, in an assault in southern Lebanon.
Because the starting of the warfare between Israel and Hamas, cross-border firefights have occurred often between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Saturday’s assault in Damascus got here 4 days after the IRGC mentioned it attacked “an Israeli intelligence headquarters” in Arbil, the capital of the northern autonomous province of Kurdistan.
Iraqi authorities mentioned the assault killed 4 civilians and injured six others.
Israel not often feedback on particular person assaults on Syria however has repeatedly mentioned it won’t enable Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities, to broaden its presence there.
Since 2011, Syria has confronted a bloody battle that has claimed greater than half 1,000,000 lives and displaced tens of millions of individuals.
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