Toll rises to 16 in Israeli strike on Iran's Damascus consulate

AFP | Beirut   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Wednesday that the death toll from an Israeli air strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus this week had risen to 16.

The raid destroyed the consular annex of the embassy, with Iran's Revolutionary Guard saying two of its high-level commanders were among seven of its personnel killed.

"The death toll from Israeli strikes on the Iranian embassy annex has risen to 16," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Observatory, which had previously given a toll of 14.

He said the dead included eight Iranians, five Syrians and one member of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group -- all of them fighters.

Two civilians, a woman and her son, were also killed, the Observatory added.

The Observatory said one of the dead, named as Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, had served as leader of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force for Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

The Damascus strike was the fifth in a week to hit Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad is supported by Iran, Israel's long-time arch-foe.

Hezbollah fighters have long been deployed in Syria in support of Assad's forces in his country's civil war.

The Damascus raid came after another Israeli raid last Friday killed 53 people in Syria, including 38 soldiers and seven Hezbollah members, according to the Observatory.

It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began on October 7, according to the monitor.