The Syrian military said buildings in the heavily guarded western Damascus district of Matzeh had been completely destroyed, adding that the Israeli Air Force fired a missile while flying over Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hours later, an Israeli drone struck a car near the southern Lebanese port city of Tire, killing two Hezbollah members, a group official said.
One of those killed was local Hezbollah commander Ali Hudorji.
Nour News, said to be close to the country’s intelligence services, identified two of the dead in Damascus as General Sadegh Omidzadeh, the intelligence deputy of the Quds Force expeditionary force in Syria, and his deputy, also known as De Geer. Haji Golam.
Security personnel later issued a statement identifying the dead as Hojatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi. It gave them no rank. Differences in information could not be quickly reconciled.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said at least six people, five Iranians and one Syrian, were killed in a missile attack that occurred while officials from an Iranian-backed group were holding a meeting. did.
The observatory’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, said three of the Iranians were commanders, adding that four others were still missing under the rubble.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Qanani condemned Israel’s attack in a statement, saying: “Without a doubt, the blood of these high-ranking martyrs will not be in vain.”
It added that the Iranian government “reserves the right to respond to the organized terrorism of the pseudo-Zionist regime at appropriate times and places.”
Iran also tried again to link Israel to the so-called Islamic State, something the country’s leaders have been trying to do since the extremist suicide bombing that killed more than 90 people in Iran in early January.
Syrian state television reported that the “Israeli invasion” targeted residential buildings in Mazzeh, where several diplomatic missions are based. Saturday’s strike took place near the embassies of Venezuela and South Africa.
One official said the building was being used by Revolutionary Guards officials, adding that the entire building was destroyed by “Israeli missiles” and that 10 people were killed or injured in the attack.
The Israeli military has not commented on the attack.
Ambulances and fire engines were also seen nearby, and security forces were deployed around the destroyed four-story building. A search is underway for people trapped under the rubble. Windows of nearby buildings were also broken.
A grocery store near the bombing site said it heard five consecutive explosions at around 9:15 a.m. (6:15 a.m. Japan time), after which the bodies of a man and a woman were carried away and the injured He added that he saw three people.
The attack comes amid rising tensions in the region as Israel advances its offensive in Gaza.
War could increase tensions across the region and spark other conflicts.
Last month, an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus killed Iranian General Seyed Raji Mousavi, an adviser to the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in Syria. Israel has also targeted Palestinian and Lebanese operatives in Syria over the past few years.
Iranian and Syrian officials have long acknowledged that Iran has advisers and military experts in Syria, but have denied the presence of ground forces. Thousands of fighters from Iranian-backed groups have participated in the Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011, and helped tilt the balance of power in favor of President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks against targets in government-controlled areas of war-torn Syria in recent years.
Although Israel rarely acknowledges such actions in Syria, it does support the efforts of Iranian allies such as Lebanese Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. It said it was targeting the bases of extremist groups in the area.
Earlier this month, top Hamas commander Saleh Allouri was killed in an attack allegedly carried out by Israel in Beirut.
Over the past few weeks, rockets have been fired from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, increasing tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border, and in the Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. There have also been attacks on ships.
