© AFP
Two commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital Damascus. An annex of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital has been razed to the ground.
Monday April 1, 2024 at 8:15 PM
Seven people were killed in the Israeli attack: five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and two of their commanders. The killed commanders are Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi. The former was one of the leaders of the branch responsible for military intelligence.
The IRGC is separate from the Iranian army and falls directly under Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The elite corps consists of more than a hundred thousand soldiers and has its own army, special units, air force and navy.
The Iranian ambassador to Syria was unharmed. Afterwards he talked about an attack by F-35s that fired six missiles.
“Serious response”
Iran reacts furiously. It considers the attack a “violation of international conventions”. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian calls on the international community to take a “serious response” after “such criminal actions.” A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Tehran reserves the right to respond after the Israeli attack and that it has yet to be decided how this will be done.
Israel has often carried out attacks on Syria, especially since the war broke out in the Gaza Strip. There are many soldiers from Iran, Israel’s arch enemy, in that country. Tehran supports the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Palestinian extremist movement Hamas.
Israeli airstrikes in Aleppo, Syria, killed more than 40 people at the end of last week. Among them were members of the Hezbollah militia and the Syrian army.
Faisal Mekdad, the Syrian Foreign Minister, has already strongly condemned the Israeli attacks. And he says they cannot destroy the strong bond between Syria and Iran.