DAMASCUS: Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s embassy in Syria on Monday in an escalation of Israel’s war against Iran’s regional proxies, flattening a building in a strike Tehran said killed a top Revolutionary Guards commander and several diplomats.
Reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole in front of the debris.
The Syrian foreign minister and interior minister were both spotted at the scene. Israel has long targeted Iranian military installations and those of its proxies in Syria, and has ramped up those strikes in parallel with its campaign against Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Monday’s attack was the first time the vast embassy compound itself had been hit. Israel typically does not comment about attacks by its forces on Syria.
The Iranian ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, who was not injured, said at least five persons had been killed in the attack and that Tehran’s response would be “harsh”. Iranian state media said one of those killed was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, and that Tehran believed he was the target of the attack. Syrian state media said at least six persons were killed.