Tehran blames Israel for Damascus strike that killed four Revolutionary Guards

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Iran accused Israel of killing 4 members of its elite Revolutionary Guards and numerous Syrians forces in an air strike that focused a constructing in Damascus.

Tasnim, an Iranian information company affiliated to the guards, described the Iranians killed on Saturday as “navy advisers”. The guards confirmed the deaths of its members blaming an Israeli air raid, but it surely didn’t give their rankings.

Iranian state tv stated the positioning hit within the strike was a residential constructing utilized by guards members.

The assault is the newest escalation in regional hostilities which have erupted within the wake of the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

The raid on Damascus comes 4 days after the guards launched a barrage of missiles in opposition to what it described as an Israeli “espionage centre” in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan area of Iraq.

The strikes danger scary an escalation of hostilities between Iran, its community of militant teams within the Center East and Israel.

Israel didn’t instantly touch upon the strike. It often neither confirms nor denies accusations that it has carried out assassinations or strikes in opposition to Iran. 

The residential constructing struck in Damascus sits in a tightly guarded neighbourhood of Mazzeh the place many overseas embassies are positioned.

The guards recognized the navy advisers killed as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aqazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi.

Iranian forces have been lively in Syria because the Islamic republic deployed troops to the Arab state to again President Bashar al-Assad after a 2011 widespread rebellion morphed right into a civil conflict.

Israel and Iran have been engaged in an more and more overt confrontation throughout the Center East over the previous decade, and Israeli forces have performed scores of air strikes in opposition to Iranian-affiliated forces.

However tensions between the 2 states have ratcheted up additional because the begin of the conflict in Gaza as Iranian-backed militant teams throughout the area have launched assaults in opposition to Israel, US forces and industrial transport.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this week that Israel was “attacking” Iran.

“Who says we’re not attacking Iran? We’re attacking,” he informed reporters. “Iran is the top of the octopus and also you see its tentacles throughout from the Houthis to Hizbollah to Hamas.”

Iranian officers have stated Tehran wished to keep away from a wider regional conflict erupting and didn’t need to be drawn into direct battle with Israel or the US. However the dangers of a broader conflagration have been rising.

In December, a suspected Israeli strike close to Damascus killed two guards members. One other on Christmas Day killed Razi Mousavi, a senior Iranian commander. Iranian officers stated on the time that the slain militant was an “adviser” to Assad’s authorities and blamed Israel for the assassination and that they reserved the precise to reply in type.

This month, a suspected Israeli strike killed senior Hamas political chief Saleh al-Arouri in southern Beirut, a stronghold of Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant motion that’s Iran’s most essential proxy.

Rockets have been fired from Syria into northern Israeli since October 7.

Footage circulating on social media and Syrian media confirmed ambulances and fireplace vehicles gathered close to the flattened constructing in Damascus. Syrian media reported a number of different individuals have been injured and killed within the assault.