Senior Iranian commander killed after alleged Israeli strike on embassy in Syria

A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed on Monday in an alleged Israeli strike on the Iranian Embassy in Syria’s capital city of Damascus.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, was among those killed in the strike, according to Reuters and Iranian media.

Iranian media reported Monday that an Israeli missile strike flattened the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing a handful of people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported seven Iranian officers were killed in addition to Zahedi.

Tehran is vowing a harsh military response to the attack, according to Iranian media channels.

A statement from Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hussein Akbar said the embassy was attacked by F-35 fighter jets and six missiles.

Akbar accused Israel of violating international laws and said it does “everything contrary to humanity,” according to the statement shared by a pro-Iranian telegram channel.

The Hill has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. Israel rarely acknowledges strikes inside of Syria, but it has frequently conducted them for years amid a shadow war with Iran.

Syria’s Ministry of Defense also reported a strike around 5 p.m. local time in Damascus, which it said completely destroyed the embassy, Iranian channels reported.

Israel has repeatedly struck senior Iranian officials in Syria since the war broke out in Gaza, where Israeli troops are fighting the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A late December strike killed a high-ranking Iranian officer in Syria, and another in January killed five other Iranians in the country.