7 Iranian officers, 7 aid workers killed in strikes blamed on Israel
DUBAI—Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed to retaliate for an alleged Israeli airstrike against its consulate in Syria on Monday that Tehran said killed seven Iranian military commanders.
Also on Monday, seven people working for World Central Kitchen were killed in central Gaza in a separate strike blamed on Israel.
“This cowardly crime will not go unanswered,” Raisi said of the attack in Syria, state media reported.
Israel has long targeted Iran’s military installations in Syria and those of its proxies, but Monday’s attack was the first time it apparently hit the embassy compound in the capital Damascus itself. An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment.
The New York Times cited four unnamed Israeli officials as acknowledging that Israel had carried out the attack.
It has ramped up those strikes in parallel with its campaign against Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, which ignited the Gaza war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 253 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Major escalation
If confirmed, Israel’s bombing of Iran’s embassy in Syria would mark a major escalation in its war with its regional adversaries.
Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main Iranian embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole by the debris.
“We strongly condemn this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents,” said Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad who was seen at the site along with Syria’s interior minister.
Iran’s ambassador to Syria said the strike hit a consular building in the embassy compound and that his residence was on the top two floors.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that seven Iranian military advisers died in the strike including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in its Quds Force, which is an elite foreign espionage and paramilitary arm.
CondemnedIran’s UN mission described the strike as a “flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the foundational principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises.”
Muslim nations including Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack, as did Russia.
Citizens from Australia, Britain and Poland were among workers of World Central Kitchen (WCK) killed in Gaza, the NGO said.
The workers, who also included Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, were traveling in two armored cars emblazoned with the WCK logo and another vehicle, the NGO said in a statement.
Israel has long denied it is hindering the distribution of urgently needed food aid in Gaza, saying the problem is caused by the inability of international aid groups to get it to those in need.
Despite coordinating movements with the Israeli Defense Force, the convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse, after unloading more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, WCK said. —REUTERS
