Click to see full-size image. By the Israeli Air Force.
11 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in recent Israeli strikes on Syria, sources told Al Arabiya on December 29.
The targeted IRGC members, responsible for overseeing Iran-backed forces in Syria’s eastern region, were present at Damascus International Airport to welcome a senior delegation when they were targeted, the sources told the Saudi-owned news channel.
Al Arabiya’s sister channel, Al Hadath reported that the commander of IRGC forces in the eastern region, Nur Rashid, was injured in the strikes.
Syrian state media reported two waves of Israeli strikes on the southern region late on December 28 and shortly after midnight.
A Syrian military intelligence source and another regional security official familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Israeli strikes targeted a Syrian air defense base and a radar station in the Tell al-Sahn area in the southeastern countryside of Suwayda.
Moreover, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, reported that the strikes also hit Damascus International Airport, which resumed operations a day earlier after more than two months of repairs from a previous Israeli attack.
The IRGC has not yet reported any losses from the recent Israeli strikes on Syria. Earlier this week, the guards mourned one of its top commanders in Syria, Brigade General Seyed Razi Mousavi, just a few hours after he was killed in southern Damascus in a strike attributed to Israel.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a message the same day, December 25, warning that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”
Israel escalated its attacks on Syria significantly since the outbreak of the war with the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions in the Gaza Strip.
If the information reported by Al Arabia is true, tensions between Israel and Iran will reach a whole new level. The IRGC will not likely tolerate repeated Israeli attacks on its forces in Syria. The guards will not only respond but will also attempt to establish deterrence.
