A destroyed building next to the Iran Embassy, Damascus, Syria, April 1, 2024

Israel Kills 40+ Pro-Assad Militia in NW Syria — Reports

UPDATE 2126 GMT:

A third Iranian general has reportedly been killed in this afternoon’s Israeli strike on the consulate building next to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.

The claimed victim is Gen. Hossein Aminullah, the Chief of General Staff for Iranian forces in Syria and Lebanon.

Without identifying his position, the Revolutionary Guards named Aminullah as one of those slain.

UPDATE 1949 GMT:

Iranian State media are now confirming that Iran’s deputy commander in Syria, Gen. Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, was killed in Israel’s attack on the consulate building next to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus this afternoon.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Israel has killed a top Iran commander in Syria for the second time in three months.

In the latest of a series of airstrikes slaying senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Israel struck the consulate building next to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus at 12:07 p.m. on Monday.

Seven people were reportedly slain, including the IRGC commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi.

Zahedi was the commander of the IRGC Air Force from 2005 to 2006 and the Ground Force Commander from 2006 to 2008. He was also in charge of the Thar-Allah base, responsible for the security of Tehran from 2004 to 2008. For the next nine years, he was head of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.

Iranian Ambassador Hossein Akbari confirmed the Israeli attack, saying the consular building was struck by six missiles. He reported the seven fatalities but gave no identities.

Iranian State TV said diplomats were among the other victims.

On December 25, an Israeli strike on Iranian positions in southern Damascus killed the head of the Quds Force — the Guards organization for operations outside Iran — Sayyed Razi Mousavi.

See also UPDATES: Israel Assassinates Iran Revolutionary Guards Commander in Syria

Monday’s strike in the Mezzeh area, not far from the palace of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, targeted the consulate and ambassador’s residence.

Footage showed a flattened building. Next to the rubble, an Iranian flag flew over the embassy.

As usual, the Assad regime’s military declared that air defense systems had downed some missiles. However, regime media acknowledged that rescuers were recovering dead and wounded people from under the wreckage.

The strike came hours after a drone launched by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq struck a base of the Israeli Navy base in the country’s southernmost city of Eilat. A hangar was damaged.