- Second missile attack in two days
- No immediate statement from Israel, which usually declines to comment on reports of strikes in Syria
JEDDAH (News Agencies): An officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in an Israeli missile strike early on Friday on Iran-linked targets on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria.
The attack on an arms depot for Assad regime forces and Iran-backed groups just south of the Syrian capital was the sixth by Israel this month, and the second in two days.
The Revolutionary Guards said the dead man, Milad Haydari, was an officer and military adviser. They vowed to response, and said the “criminal attack” would not go unanswered.
Syrian state media said Israel had attacked just after midnight, firing missiles that hit a site in the Damascus countryside. Syrian air defenses had shot down a number of missiles, it said.
Iranian-backed groups, including Iraqi militias and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have positions around Damascusand in Syria’s north, east and south.
Israel has for years carried out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting Bashar Assad in the civil war that began in 2011.
Iran says its officers serve in an advisory role in Syria at the invitation of Damascus. Dozens of Revolutionary Guard members, including senior officers, have been killed in Syria during the war.