A raid blamed on Israel targeted an annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Monday, with an NGO reporting eight deaths, in an extremely tense regional context against a backdrop of war in the Gaza Strip.
This is the fifth raid in eight days targeting Syria, where Iran and its allies support the power of Bashar al-Assad.
“The Israeli enemy launched airstrikes from the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus,” said the Syrian Ministry of Defense, which reported several deaths and injuries.
He added that the strike had “completely destroyed the building”, located in Mazzeh according to the official Syrian news agency Sana, a district which houses embassies and United Nations buildings.
“All those inside were killed or injured,” the ministry continued.
“We strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack” which killed “a number of innocent people,” declared Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in a statement carried by Sana.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO based in the United Kingdom but which has a vast network of sources in the country, reported eight deaths in this “Israeli missile” attack.
The ambassador unharmed
In Tehran, the Iranian Nour news agency reported that “Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not injured in the Israeli attack.”
This attack “shows the reality of the Zionist entity which does not recognize any international law and does everything inhumane to achieve its objectives,” commented Mr. Akbari, quoted by the Sana agency.
An AFP correspondent on site confirmed that the embassy annex building had been completely destroyed by the strike.
A commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s ideological army, was among those killed, Iranian state media reported.
“Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the main commanders of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred during an attack by Zionist regime fighters against the annex of the “Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus,” Iranian state television Irib reported.
The Quds Force is, within the Revolutionary Guards, responsible for operations outside Iran.
According to the OSDH, the death toll includes five other members of the Revolutionary Guards and two Iranian advisers.
AFP photos show the building completely destroyed, reduced to a state of ruin. Not far from the scene, dozens of men gathered in front of the scene. An ambulance is on site.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in neighboring Syria against Syrian government positions, pro-Iranian groups, such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and Iranian military targets since the start of the war in that country in 2011.
The strikes have intensified since the start on October 7 of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah and Iran, enemies of Israel.
At the same time, Israeli strikes target Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, from where the pro-Iranian Shiite formation carries out attacks against Israel.
Israel rarely comments on its strikes in Syria but says it would not allow Iran, its sworn enemy, to gain a foothold on its border.