- Israeli strike kills Iranian advisers
- Escalating tensions in the region
- Ongoing conflicts involve multiple nations
Four “military advisers” from Iran, as reported by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential structure in Damascus, Syria’s capital.
The Syrian state-run SANA reported that the assault took place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood on Saturday. According to the report, the facility was the target of “Israeli aggression.”
An informed source indicated that the structure belonged to an IRGC intelligence unit, and a senior IRGC intelligence official stationed in Syria and his assistants were inside.
“Several Syrian forces and four military advisers” were killed in an airstrike by Israeli fighter jets, according to a brief statement from the IRGC. The deceased were later identified as Saied Karimi, Ali Aghazadeh, Hojjatollah Omidvar, and Hossein Mohammadi without disclosing their ranks.
Israel, which has not commented yet, was labelled as a “terrorist” by Iranian state television about the incident.
A four-story building was destroyed by four missiles, according to Iranian official television. One person was transported to the hospital.
Escalating hostilities
The strike activity on Saturday coincides with escalating regional tensions. An Israeli offensive on Gaza has claimed the lives of nearly 25,000 Palestinians.
In recent years, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes against Iranian-affiliated targets within government-controlled regions of war-ravaged Syria.
“In addition to being a theatre of the power struggle between regional and global powers, Syria is also the arena for intelligence operations,” stated Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar from Tehran.
Syria holds significant importance for Iran, Lebanon, and Hezbollah, particularly as a member of the ‘Axis of the Resistance’. Thus, their entire presence in the country is concealed, he further explained.
A longtime IRGC adviser, Iranian general Sayyed Razi Mousavi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Damascus suburb last month.
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Middle East Tensions Escalate
Although Israel seldom acknowledges its involvement in Syria, it has stated that it targets Iranian ally bases, including those of Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has provided support to the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with thousands of combatants.
Israel is accused of assassinating Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut this month.
Syria has launched projectiles into northern Israel and the Golan Heights, which are under Israeli occupation, in recent weeks, adding to the tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border and the assaults on ships in the Red Sea carried out by the Houthi rebels of Yemen, which are aligned with Iran.
On Monday, Iran launched ballistic missiles at Erbil, the administrative centre of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. They claimed to have targeted an Israeli intelligence headquarters. Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdish officials refuted this claim. Four or more individuals were killed in the assault.
