DAMASCUS: On Monday, what was reportedly an Israeli airstrike destroyed a portion of Iran’s consulate in the Syrian capital, seemingly escalating the confrontation and setting up Israel against Iran and its allies.
Everyone inside the demolished Iranian embassy consular annex was killed or injured by Israeli airstrikes, according to Damascus, while Iranian state TV named a Revolutionary Guards commander among the deceased.
The massive embassy complex itself was not previously attacked, and the attack on Monday coincides with rising tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza and the escalating hostilities between Iran’s allies and Israel.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that monitors war, reported that eight persons were killed when “Israeli missiles… destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy.” Among them were six members of the Guards.
Eight people are slain in the strike, including a Revolutionary Guard commander; Tehran vows it will reply when appropriate
Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, stated on Iranian state television that “at least five people were killed in the attack which was carried out by F-35 fighter jets,” however he did not provide an exact death toll.
When AFP reporters arrived in the affluent Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, they discovered that the annex building had collapsed and that rescue workers were racing to look for victims beneath the debris.
When Reuters reporters arrived on the scene, they observed emergency vehicles parked outside and smoke billowing from the debris of a destroyed building.
In front of the rubble, an Iranian flag was flying from a pole. The foreign and interior ministers of Syria were observed at the location.
A throng of spectators watched as security personnel surrounded the location where earthmoving machinery was brought in to clear the rubble and remove burned-out cars from the outside road.
According to the ministry of defense in Syria, “work is underway to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from under the rubble. The attack destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside.”
Iranian state television reported that Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top leader of the Quds Force, the overseas operations wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was among the dead.
“The death of a high-ranking leader who served as the leader of the Quds Force for Syria and Lebanon, two Iranian advisers, and five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been confirmed,” the Observatory added.
Throughout the six-month conflict in Gaza, Israel has struck Iranian targets on multiple occasions and has generally remained silent about its operations on Syria. “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media,” an Israeli military official stated in response to a question regarding the strike.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller responded to a question regarding the attack by saying, “I am not going to comment with respect to this strike as we do need to know more.”
“Abhorrent assault”
According to state media, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated on Monday that the country retains the right to retaliate against the Israeli attack on its consulate in Damascus.
Mr. Kanaani continued, “Tehran will determine “the form of retribution and punishment against the aggressor.”
After visiting the location, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad condemned the strike as well.
Mekdad issued a statement that SANA reported, saying, “We strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocent people.”
“The Israeli assault on the Iranian consulate demonstrates the reality of the Zionist entity which recognizes no international laws and does all that is inhumane to achieve its goals,” stated Iran’s ambassador, Akbari.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister of Iran, demanded a “serious response by the international community.”
