UPDATE April 1, 10:35 p.m.: Official position of Iran
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has released an official statement announcing the death of seven high-ranking members of the branch who were eliminated in today’s airstrike by the Israeli Air Force; among the names announced were senior Quds Force commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, as well as his deputy and commander of IRGC operations in Syria and Lebanon Mohammad Rahimi; in addition to them, the attack also resulted in the deaths of Hussein Aman Allahi, Sayyid Mahdi Jalalti, Mohsen Sadaqat, Ali Agha Babaei and Ali Salehi Rozbhani.
ORIGINAL NEWS:
Iran’s ambassador to Damascus, Syria, Hossein Akbari, said on Monday that Tehran’s response to the Israeli air attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus “will be a very tough one”, informs Reuters, according to Rador Radio Romania.
“The response will be swift, direct and harsh,” the official said.
Israeli strikes hit the Iranian consulate building in Damascus on Monday, reported the Syrian news agency SANA, while the non-governmental organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDO) announced that eight people died in this unprecedented raid, reports AFP, Agerpres shows .
“Israeli strikes targeted a building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus,” an area where embassies and the UN representation are located, according to SANA.
The Syrian news agency added that “air defense systems attacked enemy targets around” the capital.
OSDO, which is based in London and has a wide network of sources in Syria, evoked a balance of eight deaths.
In Tehran, state media reported that an Israeli strike destroyed an annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus. “Hossein Akbari, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not injured during the Israeli attack,” reported the Iranian press agency Nur.
Photos published by AFP show the building completely destroyed. Dozens of passers-by gathered nearby, and an ambulance arrived at the scene of the attack.
