Canadian embassy in Syria damaged in Israeli strike on Iranian embassy next door

Canadian officials are say‐ ing little publicly about the state of the Canadian Em‐ bassy in Damascus, Syria, a week after an Israeli bomb or missile demolished an Iranian Embassy annex next door.

A source at Global Affairs Canada (GAC) told CBC News that Canada's embassy build‐ ing sustained damage in the April 1 airstrike, including the destruction of at least some of its windows. Officials have not yet been able to assess the building for structural damage.

The blast that destroyed the consular annex next door would have sent a powerful shockwave through the foun‐ dations of adjacent struc‐ tures.

Global Affairs has de‐ clined to answer questions about whether the Israeli government warned Canada in advance of the strike on the Iranian Embassy annex.

The nearby Canadian em‐ bassy ceased operations in 2012 as the Syrian civil war worsened. GAC didn't say whether Israel checked with Canada to ensure that no Canadian personnel were on site when the airstrike hit.

Canadian diplomats and other personnel, including RCMP officers, have entered Syria on several occasions since the embassy was closed. It's not clear whether they used the embassy as a base of operations.

The GAC source told CBC News the embassy building remains the property of the Government of Canada.

The Canadian Embassy is two doors down from the large and ornate mission of the Islamic Republic on alFarabi Street in the Mazzeh district, which houses many foreign embassies. Between the two buildings was a non‐ descript consular annex used by the Iranian government.

On the night of Monday, April 1, that annex was hosting a meeting of Iranian generals and senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The death toll from the Israeli airstrike could not be independently confirmed; the Syrian Obser‐ vatory for Human Rights re‐ ported that the strike killed 16, including two civilian by‐ standers.

Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari claimed that the strike had been car‐ ried out by Israeli F-35 air‐ craft that fired six missiles.

The Iranian government announced the deaths of seven IRGC members, includ‐ ing two generals. Some Is‐ raeli reports claimed that a representative of Hezbollah was killed in the strike, and the New York Times quoted an IRGC source as saying Palestinian Islamic Jihad had a representative at the meet‐ ing.

The most significant loss for Iran was that of Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi of the IRGC's foreign operations arm, the Quds Force. Reza Zahedi was the only Iranian to sit on the Shura, or guiding council, of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, and was widely considered to be Iran's top military official in Syria and Lebanon.

WATCH | Top Iranian commander among dead after Israeli airstrike in Damascus, reports say

Israel has a policy of not claiming responsibility for strikes conducted in other countries. An Israeli Embassy spokesperson declined to say whether Israel had warned Canada in advance of the airstrike.

"Israel have not taken re‐ sponsibility for the strike," Yi‐ fah Mivtach Greenvald of the

Israeli Embassy told CBC News, "so I have no further comment than that."

Iran has promised to take revenge. "The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe," Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatol‐ lah Ali Khamenei, told Iran's ISNA state news agency.

Iranian TV also published images of different types of ballistic missiles it said could hit Israel. The threats of reprisal have caused Israel to cancel all military leave and bolster its air defences.

Israeli officials also leaked news that their air force was practicing drills for strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities,

The Vienna Convention that protects diplomatic mis‐ sions only prohibits host countries from acts of vio‐ lence against diplomatic mis‐ sions - Israel's strike on an embassy in a third country is not a violation of the treaty, although it does violate inter‐ national conventions.

Israel has long argued that Iranian government offi‐ cials were involved in the deadly bombing of its em‐ bassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.

In December, a French consular employee was killed along with family members in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on a house belonging to an‐ other staff member of France's consulate in Gaza.

"The house was hit by an Israeli air strike on Wednes‐ day evening, which seriously hurt our agent and killed about 10 others," France's foreign ministry said.

France condemned the bombing of a residential building.

"We've asked for explana‐ tions as to why the house was hit," French Foreign Min‐ ister Catherine Colonna said.