


An Israeli missile strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus Saturday killed several members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – including the head of the elite force’s information unit, according to reports. The strike was followed hours later by a separate strike in Lebanon on targets associated with Hezbollah.
In the first attack, the closely-guarded building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus was completely destroyed, according to the Syrian army.
The Israeli Air Force fired the missiles while flying over the occupied Golan Heights, the military said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – an opposition war monitor – claimed that at least six people, including five Iranians and a Syrian civilian, were killed in the strike.
There are also four people missing underneath the rubble of the four-story structure, the organization said.
Three of the slain Iranians were commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Observatory.
A grocer near the scene of the strike said he heard five explosions around 10:15 a.m. local time – and later saw the bodies of a man and a woman being taken away, along with three injured people.
“The shop shook. I stayed inside for few seconds then went out and saw the smoke billowing from behind the mosque,” recounted the man, who asked that his name not be used for security reasons.
Israel has not commented on the strike – though Iran has already insisted on its right to retaliate, the Times of Israel reported.
Tehran will respond “at the appropriate time and place,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
Kanani also slammed the strike as “an escalation in aggressive and provocative attacks” by Israel.
A few hours after the Damascus blast, an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two Hezbollah members.
Two people in a nearby orchard also died in the strike, according to a state news agency.
One of the fatalities was Ali Hudruj, a local Hezbollah leader, an official said.
Israel – which has been grappling with threats from Iran-backed Hezbollah while battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip – is working toward securing a deal with the terror group by the end of January meant to avert drawing Lebanon into the war, a US official told the Washington Post.
Both strikes came amid increased tensions over Israel’s counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip and growing clashes in the region.
The Gaza campaign is believed to have killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-linked health authorities, who don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The months-long effort has also displaced around 2.3 million people from their homes.
With Post wires