7 members of Iranian military killed in Israeli airstrike on Damascus embassy

An Israeli airstrike destroyed the Iranian consular building in Damascus on Monday night, killing two Iranian generals and five officers, according to Iranian officials.

The airstrike is a new escalation in a longstanding series of military exchanges between Israel and Iran, which have mounted since Israel began its onslaught on Gaza.

General Mohamed Reza Zahedi was killed in Monday night’s airstrike, according to the Iranian Armed Forces’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Zahedi led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016. His deputy, General Mohamed Hadi Haji-Rahimi and five other officers were also killed, said the IRGC.

Hussein Youssef, a member of Hezbollah, was also killed in the attack, according to a group official quoted by the Associated Press.

The airstrike completely demolished the Iranian consular building within the embassy compound, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency, with everyone inside either killed or wounded. Bodies and injured people are still being pulled from under the rubble.

Speaking on Tuesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi promised the attack would not go without retaliation. Hezbollah, which offered condolences for Zahedi’s death, also warned the attack will not pass without the “enemy receiving punishment and revenge.”

The Occupation military did not officially confirm the strike — as is typical for its attacks in Syria. But hours after the strike, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel is working “to make it clear to everyone who acts against us, all over the Middle East, that the price for acting against Israel will be a heavy price.”

As for the United States, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Washington is “concerned about anything that would be escalatory or cause an increase in conflict in the region.” However, he did not predict that the strike would affect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad condemned the attack, accusing the Israeli Occupation of seeking to widen the scope of conflict beyond the Gaza Strip.

In a brief Tuesday morning statement, Egypt condemned the attack as well. “We categorically reject attacks on diplomatic facilities under any justification. And we stand in solidarity with sister Syria,” the Foreign Ministry note said.

Monday night’s attack is the most aggressive in a series of Occupation airstrikes that have targeted Iranian military officials since October 7.

Groups supported by Iran have also pursued Israeli and US targets in the region as part of ongoing hostilities, as well as in retaliation for the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The Occupation forces have been engaged in daily cross-border shelling with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, while Yemen’s Houthis have targeted ships passing via the Red Sea and launched regular missile attacks against Israeli targets. The Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades have also engaged in fighting with US forces since October, but after conducting multiple attacks in Iraq and Syria, they announced in January the suspension of all military attacks against US troops in the region.

In December, an Israeli airstrike on Damascus killed a longtime Iranian Revolutionary Guard adviser to Syria, Sayed Razi Mousavi. Another strike on the Syrian capital in January killed at least five Iranian advisers. Last week, an Iranian adviser was killed in airstrikes in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, near the Iraqi border.

Friday also witnessed an Israeli airstrike on the northern Aleppo province that killed 33 Syrian civilians and five Hezbollah fighters — the highest death toll of Israeli attacks on Syria since October 7.