Senior Iran Revolutionary Guard officials killed in Syria strike blamed on Israel

 

Four senior members of Iran's security forces have been killed in a suspected air strike on the Syrian capital.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard blamed Israel for the attack, which it said killed four military advisers as well as a number of Syrian forces.

Israel has not commented. For years it has carried out strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria.

Such strikes have intensified since the Israel-Gaza war began following Hamas's 7 October attacks on Israel.  

Senior figures among the Revolutionary Guard - a major military, political and economic force in Iran - have been present in Syria since the civil war began there in 2011, helping to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against widespread rebellion to his rule.

Saturday's attack is understood to have taken place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood, south-west Damascus, an area home to a military airport, as well as the UN headquarters in Damascus, embassies and restaurants.

A resident told AFP news agency that they saw "explosions" in the western Mazzeh area and "a large cloud of smoke".

"The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances," he added.

Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said the attacks killed the IRGC's Syria intelligence chief, his deputy, as well as two other Guard members.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a military source as saying it had managed to stop some of the missiles, but that the attacks - which it said had hit a residential building - killed and injured some civilians. Buildings were also destroyed, it said.  

Videos, which the BBC has not verified, showed a large cloud of smoke and buildings destroyed.

Last month a suspected Israeli air strike just outside Damascus killed a senior IRGC commander.

The Middle East has been on heightened alert since 7 October, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,300 people, mainly civilians, and taking 240 hostages back to Gaza. More than 132 hostages are thought to still be held in the territory.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68040493