Five IRGC commanders killed in alleged Israeli airstrike, Iranian media claims

Syrian state media said a likely Israeli attack had targeted a building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, without giving further details.

By REUTERS

JANUARY 20, 2024 09:47

Updated: JANUARY 20, 2024 17:46

People gather near the damaged site, that was hit by an Israeli military strike according to sources, in Damascus, Syria January 20, 2024.
(photo credit: REUTERS/FIRAS MAKDESI)

Five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were killed in an alleged Israeli air strike on Damascus on Saturday, including a senior figure in its information unit, a security source in the regional pro-Syrian alliance told Reuters.

In Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards named four military advisers who were killed in the Israeli strike, but did not give their rank, and said further details would be announced later. Iranian state television said the targeted building was the residence of Iranian advisers in the Syrian capital. A fifth advisor was later confirmed to have died of his wounds.

The strike, using precision-guided missiles according to the source, flattened a multi-story building in the neighborhood of Mazzeh in the Syrian capital.

The security source, part of a network of groups close to Syria’s government and its major ally Iran, said the multi-story building was used by Iranian advisers supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s government, and that it was entirely flattened by “precision-targeted Israeli missiles.”

Israeli has not taken responsibility for strike

There has been no immediate confirmation from Israel. Gunmen stand during the funeral of two Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen who were killed in an Israeli raid, in Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank May 10, 2023. (credit: RANEEN SAWAFTA/REUTERS)

Essam Al-Amin, head of the Al-Mowasat Hospital in Damascus, told local Syrian outlet Al-Watan Online that his hospital had received one corpse and three wounded people, including a woman, following Saturday’s attack.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad told Reuters that no members of their group were wounded in the strike, following reports that some were at the bombed-out building. Advertisement

Israel has long pursued a bombing campaign against Iran-linked targets in Syria. But it has shifted to deadlier strikes in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel by terrorists of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from Gaza.

In December, an Israeli strike killed two Guards members, and another on Dec. 25 killed a senior adviser to the Guards who was overseeing military coordination between Syria and Iran.

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