Israel launched a daring attack on Syria’s capital on Saturday, killing five Iranian military advisers, including a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards. The strike came amid rising tensions in the region over the war in Gaza, where Israel and the Iranian-backed Hamas group have been exchanging fire for more than three months.
According to foreign news agencies, Israel fired several missiles from the Golan Heights, targeting a building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus, where the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ information unit in Syria was located. The building was completely destroyed by the precision-targeted Israeli missiles, according to a security source close to Syria’s government and its major ally Iran.
Iran’s state TV reported that Israel also hit another building housing Iranian advisers in Damascus, killing five military advisers. Two of the dead were identified as Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, an intelligence officer with the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy, who goes by the nom de guerre Hajj Gholam.
Iran condemned the Israeli strike as a “desperate attempt to spread instability in the region” and said it reserved the right to respond to the “Zionist regime’s terrorism” at the appropriate time and place. It also urged foreign countries and international organizations to condemn the attack.
Syria’s state media said that Israel’s aerial attack on Damascus also damaged several civilian buildings and vehicles, while Syria’s air defense system shot down some of the Israeli missiles in the air. Syria’s defence ministry said the attack was a violation of its sovereignty and a threat to its security.
Israel has long pursued a bombing campaign against Iran-linked targets in Syria, but it has intensified attacks since its war with Hamas began in October. Hamas last year said it had restored relations with Syria’s government, which is also supported by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which backs the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to expand its presence there.
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