8 killed in Israeli airstrike on Iranian embassy in Damascus
Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus including the ambassador and his family are reported to be unharmed
Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy killed at least eight people in Damascus on Monday.
A top Revolutionary Guard commander among eight reported to have been killed amid worsening regional tensions.
Israeli air strikes destroyed the Iranian embassy’s consular annex in Damascus on Monday, Syrian and Iranian officials confirmed.
Syria’s defence ministry in a statement said that “the attack destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside, and work is underway to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from under the rubble”.
Iranian state TV confirmed that among those killed was a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
The Observatory confirmed the killing of a high-ranking leader who served as the leader of the Quds Force for Syria and Lebanon, two Iranian advisors, and five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
AFP reporters saw the annex building had caved in.
AFP shared images showing a pile of rubble about two stories high beside a fenced compound.
The emergency services rushed to the site to search for victims under the rubble as sirens wailed in the upscale Damascus district of Mazzeh.
According to the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, eight people, including several Guards members, were killed when “Israeli missiles destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy”.
However, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, giving a lower toll, told Iranian state TV that “at least five people were killed in the attack which was carried out by F35 fighter jets which fired six missiles at the building.”
The emergency services rushed to the site to search for victims under the rubble as sirens wailed in the upscale Damascus district of Mazzeh.
