By Kareem Chehayeb and Albert Aji -
The Associated Press
An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Syria,
killing a senior Iranian military advisor
and several more people there, Syrian state media reported this Monday.
The attack on the Iranian consulate building could mark an escalation of the Israeli military's ongoing attacks on Iranian military officials and allies in Syria, which have intensified since October 7 following the start of its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel, which rarely acknowledges such attacks, said it had no comment on these Syrian media reports.
Iranian state television Al-Alam and the Al-Mayadeen television network, which has reporters in Syria, said the attack claimed the life of Iranian military adviser General Ali Reza Zahdi — who previously led Iran's elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.
Emergency services work on a building destroyed by an airstrike in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, April 1, 2024. Omar Sanadiki / AP
The Iranian ambassador, Hossein Akbari, condemned Israel and indicated that at least seven people had died, but that rescuers were still
searching for other bodies under the rubble.
He added that two police officers guarding the building were injured.
Akbari vowed revenge for the attack “with the same magnitude and harshness.”
Speaking to the media after meeting with Akbari, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad reported that “several” people had been killed. Mekdad, in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, condemned Israel for the bombing.
Iranian state television mentioned that the residence of the Iranian ambassador was in the consular building, adjacent to the embassy.
The state news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military source, said the building in the heavily guarded neighborhood of Mazzeh was razed.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against targets in government-controlled areas of Syria in recent years.
[Despite protests, Netanyahu rejects the option of calling early elections]
These airstrikes have intensified in recent months against the backdrop of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ongoing clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Although it rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, Israel has said it attacks bases of militant groups allied with Iran, such as Hezbollah, which
has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
In December, an Israeli airstrike on a Damascus neighborhood killed Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria. A similar attack on a Damascus building in January killed at least five Iranian advisers. Last week, airstrikes on the strategic eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, near the Iraqi border, killed an Iranian adviser.