A suspected Israeli air strike destroyed Iran’s consulate in Damascus and killed a top Iranian general in a sharp escalation following months of clashes between Israel and Tehran’s proxies.
Iran vowed a “decisive response” to the killing of Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) believed to be in charge of Iran’s operations in Syria and Lebanon.
State TV on Monday evening announced his death in an “attack by Zionist regime fighters”.
The airstrike, which Israel has not claimed responsibility for, hit the consulate on Monday afternoon, killing at least five people, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Syrian state television confirmed on Monday evening that the airstrike killed or wounded everyone who was inside at the time.
The consulate building, which stood between the Iranian embassy and the Canadian embassy in the Mezzeh district of Damascus, was completely flattened.
Footage from the scene showed smoke rising from the rubble and emergency vehicles parked outside.
Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador to Syria, was not harmed in the airstrike, which appears to be the fifth Israeli strike on targets in Syria in five days.
He told Iranian state TV the strike was carried out by six missiles fired from F35 fighter jets and vowed revenge “at the same magnitude and harshness”.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, blamed Israel for the attack and described it as “a breach of all international conventions”.
He called for an international response.
Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s foreign minister, condemned the assassination of the Iranian general as a “terrorist attack” that killed a “number of innocent lives”.
He also insisted that Israel’s attack on Syrian soil would not make it turn its back on Iran.
Mohammad Reza Zahedi commanded the IRGC’s Quds Force in Lebanon and was sanctioned by the United States and Britain.
The US Treasury sanctions designation says he acted as a “liaison” to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services and was reportedly charged with guaranteeing weapons shipments to Hezbollah.
Israel has stepped up a campaign against Iranian proxies in Syria and Lebanon in recent weeks in response to near daily Hezbollah rocket attacks over its northern border.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years.
A series of pinpointed Israeli strikes on Syria and Lebanon last weekend killed a Syrian colonel, a senior Hezbollah commander and several fighters.
Though it rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, Israel has said it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from northern Israel and the Israeli government has come under increasing pressure from residents to either reach a deal guaranteeing a cease-fire with Hezbollah or invade Lebanon to stave off attacks.
In an apparent response to that criticism, Israel’s defence minister on Friday vowed to expand operations against Hezbollah “in Beirut, Damascus or in more distant places”.
Hezbollah has insisted that it will keep shelling the north of Israel as long as the IDF continues to operate in Gaza.
Analysts say it has avoided actions that could escalate the tit-for-tat cycle of attacks to a full-scale war, however.
Top Iranian officials made it clear that they would not support Hezbollah should it decide to wage a full-on war against Israel.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had stopped advanced weapons, including shrapnel charges and anti-tank mines, from being smuggled into the West Bank from Iran.
It said the weapons were uncovered during an operation against a Lebanese-based operative of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who it said was recruiting agents to smuggle weapons and carry out attacks in the West Bank.
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