Iran accuses Israel military of killing its generals in a strike in Syria’s capital Damascus.
New Delhi:
Iran has accused Israel military of killing its generals in a strike in Syria’s capital Damascus yesterday. Tension of war has gripped among both these countries after this latest incident.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that seven officers were killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria’s capital, Damascus.
Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the elite Quds Force, and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, his deputy, were named among the dead.
Iran and Syria’s governments condemned the act of Israel, which destroyed a building next door to the Iranian embassy.
The Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Syria.
Syria’s defence ministry said “Israeli aircraft targeted the Iranian consulate building, which was on a highway in the western Mezzeh district of Damascus. Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles they launched, but others made it through and destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside.”
A spokesman of Iran’s defence ministry said that work was under way to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from beneath the rubble.
Photos and videos from the scene showed smoke and dust rising from the remains of the collapsed multi-storey building. The Iranian embassy next door did not appear to have sustained any significant damage.
The Iranian ambassador, Hossein Akbari, said “Israeli F-35 fighter jets brutally targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy, along with Iran’s military attaches”.
He said that between five and seven people were killed, including some diplomats.
The Revolutionary Guards put out a statement saying that seven of its officers were killed, including Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, whom it described as commanders and senior military advisers.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported that eight people were killed – a high-ranking leader of the Quds Force, two Iranian advisers and five members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said he strongly condemned what he called “this heinous terrorist attack”, adding that it had killed “a number of innocent people.
