DAMASCUS, Syria: Israeli strikes in Syria on Monday killed seven people, including pro-Iranian fighters, a war monitor said, in the latest such attack in the country against groups loyal to Tehran.
“The Israeli strikes targeted a base belonging to Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, killing seven people” including pro-Iranian fighters, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Two of those killed were Syrians, including a security escort for an Iranian officer, he said, adding that it was unclear if civilians were among the dead in the attack that hit Sayyida Zeinab, south of Damascus.
Syria’s Defense Ministry also reported an “airstrike” it blamed on Israel. It said the strikes targeted several locations south of Damascus around 1:00 p.m. (1000 GMT).
A statement posted on social media said “a number of Iranian advisers” had been killed, before later revising it to remove any mention of Iranian advisers.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that “the Zionist regime (Israel) targeted an Iranian advisory center in the Sayyida Zeinab area.”
However, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, denied in a social media post that the counseling center had been hit or that “any Iranian citizens or advisers were martyred” in the attack.
A previous airstrike on Sayyid Zeinab in late December, also blamed by Israel, killed a senior Iranian general.
Quds Force commander Razi Moussavi was the most senior Iranian general to be killed outside the country since January 2020, when a US drone strike in Baghdad killed the commander of the elite force, Qasem Soleimani.
And on January 20, an attack on the Damascus neighbourhood of Mazzeh targeting the Revolutionary Guards’ spy chief in Syria killed 13 people, the Observatory said.
The Guards confirmed that five members were killed in the attack, which they blamed on Israel’s regional arch-enemy.
During more than a decade of the Syrian civil war, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in the country, targeting mainly Iranian-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions.
But such attacks have intensified since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
Israel rarely comments on individual attacks on Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad, to expand its presence there.
Since 2011, Syria has experienced a bloody conflict that has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions.
Iran says it will deploy military advisers to Syria only at the invitation of Damascus.
