Six people have been killed as Israel attacked an Iranian embassy annex building in Syria’s capital Damascus on Monday, news agency AFP quoted state media as saying.
The Syrian official news agency Sana said “the Israeli attack targeted the Iranian consulate building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus”.
Syria Defence Ministry has said many have been ‘killed and injured’ in Israeli air strikes on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
A report in Reuters quoting Lebanese security source said one of the dead was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. Several Iranian diplomats have also been reportedly killed in the attack.
As per local Iranian reports, the Israeli strikes in Damascus completely destroyed the annex building. It added that the ambassador was unharmed.
“Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not harmed in the Israeli attack,” an Iranian news agency said.
Israel, which has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets since the October war in Gaza, declined to comment on the incident. An Israeli military spokesperson said, “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”
Since the Iranian-backed Palestinian faction Hamas’ attack on Israel in October last year, Israel has ramped up airstrikes in Syria against Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran’s Guards, both of which support the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria.
