A Lebanese security source confirmed that Mohammad Reza Zahedi had been killed in the bombing.
An Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus killed at least eight people on Monday, including a prominent commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to Iranian media.
“Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the high-ranking commanders of the IRGC’s Quds Force, was martyred in an attack by Zionist regime fighters on the building of the consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus,” state television reported.
A Lebanese security source confirmed that Mohammad Reza Zahedi had been killed in the bombing.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based NGO with a wide network of informants on the ground in Syria, reported at least eight deaths, including Reza Zahedi, regional head of the Quds Force, and five other members of the Guards.
Earlier, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported an Israeli attack that “targeted the Iranian consulate building in the Mazeh neighborhood of Damascus.”
Israel did not comment, but since the beginning on October 7 of its war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, it has intensified attacks against other groups linked to this Palestinian movement and supported by Iran.
Photos taken at the scene, a wealthy neighborhood in the Syrian capital, showed smoke rising from the debris of the building adjacent to the embassy, which had been razed, and emergency vehicles parked outside.
Iranian state media claimed that Iran’s ambassador to Syria was unharmed.
“Hosein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not harmed in the Israeli attack,” the Iranian news agency Nour stated.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad “strongly condemned this atrocious terrorist attack,” which caused numerous deaths and injuries according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.
“The Israeli enemy launched airstrikes from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” the ministry said in a statement. “The attack destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside, and efforts are underway to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from the rubble,” it added.
Since the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on October 7th in Israel, Tel Aviv has intensified airstrikes in Syria against the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, supported by Iran, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which supports the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The SANA agency had previously reported that Syrian air defense systems “confronted enemy targets in the vicinity of Damascus.”
Monday’s bombing came three days after the SOHR reported Israeli attacks in Syria that killed 53 people, including 38 Syrian soldiers and seven Hezbollah militants.
This Lebanese movement is an ally of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, and Iran, all of whom are enemies of Israel.
It was the highest number of casualties suffered by the Syrian army in Israeli attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas began in Gaza, the NGO said.
