U.S. tells Iran it didn’t know about plans for Israeli strike on consulate
The Biden administration communicated directly to Iran yesterday that the U.S. didn’t know about the strike on its consulate in Damascus and wasn’t involved in any way, according to two U.S. officials.
Two other U.S. officials said the administration was told about the operation in Syria while Israeli planes were in the air but didn’t know what the target was.
“The United States had no involvement in the strike, and we did not know about it ahead of time,” a spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement.
U.S. officials still don’t have independent confirmation that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammed Reza Zahedi was among those killed in the strike, according to two additional U.S. officials.
Israeli officials have declined to comment on the strike.
World Central Kitchen says it’s pausing Gaza operations after 7 workers killed in Israeli airstrike
The World Central Kitchen has said seven of its members were killed in an airstrike carried out by the Israel Defense Forces, and that it was pausing its operations in Gaza.
The members of the aid group were traveling in a “soft skin” vehicle and two armored cars with the World Central Kitchen logo on them when they were struck yesterday, the organization said in a statement. The group added that the convoy was hit despite having coordinated movements with the IDF, and that members at the time were leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where they had unloaded over 100 tons of humanitarian food aid.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore said.
The members who were killed were from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada and Palestine, the WCK said.
The IDF said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
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