4 Iranian military officers killed in Israeli air strike

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says four of its ‘military advisers’ have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential building in Syria’s capital, Damascus.

The attack on Saturday took place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood. It said ‘Israeli aggression’ targeted the building.

Iran also blamed Israel for the strike, saying it ‘reserves the right to respond’. Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Tehran would respond ‘at the appropriate time and place’, and condemned ‘an escalation in aggressive and provocative attacks’ by Israel.

A well-informed source said the target was an IRGC intelligence unit, adding that a senior IRGC intelligence official in Syria and his assistants were in the building.

In a brief statement, the IRGC said an air strike by Israeli fighter jets killed ‘a number of Syrian forces and four military advisers’. It later identified the people killed as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saied Karimi, without sharing their ranks.

Iranian state television called it a ‘terrorist’ attack by Israel, which has yet to comment.

The attack, which is believed to have been carried out with at least four missiles, completely destroyed a four-storey building, according to Iranian state media. At least one person was taken to hospital.