Iran’s consulate in Damascus in ruins – Israel accused of killing Iranian general

All who were in the consulate building were killed in the attack on Monday, according to Syrian authorities. According to state Iranian TV, several Iranian diplomats are among those killed in the attack on the consulate, which was an annex to the Iranian embassy.

The news agency AFP’s correspondent on the ground confirms that the building next to the Iranian embassy was razed to the ground in the attack on Monday.

According to security sources to the Reuters news agency, one of the top generals in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds force, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed.

Iranian state television confirmed that Zahedi was killed in what it described as a targeted attack to eliminate the general. The Quds Force leads the Revolutionary Guard’s many operations abroad.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi is said to be around 80 years old and is described as the Quds Force’s top leader in Lebanon. He was previously in command of the Revolutionary Guard’s air force and ground forces.

Both Syrian and Iranian media say Israel was behind the attack. Israel, which has carried out repeated attacks against Iranian targets in Syria and Lebanon, will not comment on the incident in line with previous practice.

– We do not comment on messages in foreign media, says a spokesperson for the Israeli military on Monday evening.

According to the Arab TV channel Al-Alam, the building is completely destroyed.

Ambassador unharmed

The Iranian news website SNN claims Iran’s consulate and the ambassador’s residence were the targets of the attack, without going into detail.

Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, and his family were not injured in the attack, reports the Iranian news agency Nour.

The Syrian Center for Civil Rights, which is affiliated with the Syrian opposition, also reports that the attack hit a building next to the Iranian embassy, ​​writes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

In the past week, Israel has carried out a number of attacks against targets in Syria.

Escalation after 7 October

On Friday, according to the exile group SOHR, more than 53 people were killed in an attack that targeted a rocket warehouse belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement near Aleppo. Among those killed were 38 Syrian government soldiers and seven members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, according to SOHR, which is based on information from an extensive network of sources on the ground in Syria.

In recent years, Israel has carried out several hundred attacks against pro-Iranian militias fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in the 13-year civil war in Syria. The attacks have been stepped up since the Gaza war broke out on October 7 between Israel and Hamas, which is allied with Hezbollah.

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