Media reports say Israeli strikes hit an Iranian embassy annex building in Damascus on April 1.
Syria's official news agency SANA said “the Israeli attack targeted the Iranian consulate building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus".
Iranian media reported that the strikes in Damascus completely destroyed the annex building, and 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,” Iran's Nour news agency said.
Britain-based group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "Israeli missiles… destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy… in Damascus, killing six people".
AFP says the incident came days after the Observatory reported Israeli strikes that killed 53 people in Syria, including 38 soldiers and seven members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, said the monitor.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that the airstrike killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, whom according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016. It reportedly also killed Zahedi’s deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.
A member of Hezbollah, Hussein Youssef, also was killed in the attack, an official with the militant group told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with group’s rules. Hezbollah has not publicly announced the death.
IRNA says Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi considered the airstrike as a proof of the non-commitment of this criminal regime to the standards, regulations, international treaties and humanitarian and moral principles to all the people of the world.
“The perpetrators and supporters of this great crime have been punished by the Mujahideen of Islam and they will be punished for their shameful act," the Iranian president said.
