(Beirut) The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) indicated on Wednesday that the death toll from the raid attributed to Israel against the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday had risen to 16 dead, including two civilians.
“The death toll from Israeli strikes against the Iranian embassy annex stands at 16: eight Iranians, five Syrians and one Lebanese, all fighters, but also two civilians, a woman and her son,” he said. AFP Rami Abdel Rahmane, director of the OSDH, based in the United Kingdom.
A previous report from the NGO, which has a vast network of sources in Syria, reported 13 deaths on Tuesday.
A Syrian Civil Defense official told AFP on Tuesday that emergency services had found the body of a woman in her fifties.
On Tuesday, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed by Israel, with a source close to the party telling AFP he was killed in Damascus.
The Iranian embassy received condolences on Wednesday, said an AFP correspondent in Damascus.
On Monday, Israeli airstrikes destroyed the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syrian and Iranian officials said, killing seven members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.
Among these victims are two generals of the Quds Force, which intervenes beyond the borders, Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.
According to the OSDH, General Zahedi, who was killed with his assistant, was the “commander of the Quds force for Syria, Lebanon and Palestine”.
It was the fifth Israeli raid in the space of a week in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is supported by Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy in the region.
Iran has accused Israel, its sworn enemy, but the latter, which rarely comments on its strikes in Syria, has not confirmed its responsibility.
“The evil Zionist regime will be punished by our brave men. We will make him regret this crime and others,” assured Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.