Iranian state media announced that Brigadier General Reza Zahedi, a high-ranking commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed in strikes in Damascus. SOHR confirmed the killing of Zahedi, and initial reports indicated that two Iranian advisers and five members of the Revolutionary Guards were also killed.
It was the fifth Israeli strike in eight days in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is backed by Iran and its allies.
The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that “the target of the Israeli attack was the building of the Iranian consulate in the Mazeh district of Damascus.” AFP correspondents from the scene reported that a building next to the embassy had been destroyed.
Iranian media said that the country’s ambassador to Damascus, Hossein Akbari, and his family were not injured in the strike.
Syrian Defense Minister Faisal Mekdad condemned the attack after visiting the scene.
According to SOHR data, 53 people were killed in the Israeli strikes in Syria on Friday, including 38 soldiers and seven fighters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against targets in Syria since 2011, when the civil war broke out in Syria. These strikes were mainly aimed at Iranian-backed forces, including Hezbollah fighters, and Syrian army positions.
The number of these strikes has increased since Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, began on October 7.
Tags: Israel struck Iranian consulate complex Damascus people died
