People inspecting the rubble of a building destroyed by a strike attributed to Israel in Damascus, Jan. 20, 2024. (Credit: SANA/Handout via Reuters)
Thirteen people, including five advisors to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, were killed on Saturday in Damascus in an air strike attributed to Israel, according to a new toll provided Sunday evening by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). "The death toll has risen to 13," said the UK-based NGO, which has an extensive network of sources in war-torn Syria.
The strike targeted and destroyed a four-story building in the western Mazze district, where a "meeting of pro-Iranian leaders" was being held, according to the source.
According to the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, five of their "military advisors" and "members of Syrian forces" were killed in the attack, which they said was carried out with "fighter jets."
Iranian media presented one of the victims as "General Sadegh Omidzadeh, in charge of intelligence in Syria for the al-Quds Force," the elite unit in charge of Iran's external operations. This information has not been officially confirmed.
Seven pro-Iranian fighters, including four Syrians, two Lebanese and one Iraqi, were among those killed, the OSDH previously said.
Iran accused Israel of the attack and vowed to avenge its deaths. Israel has not reacted to these accusations.
In recent weeks, Israel was accused of killing, in targeted operations, a senior Iranian official in Syria and the number two man of Hamas in Lebanon, raising fears of an extension of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the war in neighboring Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes there, mainly targeting pro-Iranian forces, including Lebanese Hezbollah, allies of the Syrian regime, as well as the Syrian army.
Israel, which rarely claims responsibility for its operations in Syria, maintains that it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.
Since Oct. 7, there have been daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border between Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, and the Israeli army.
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour.