Air strike in Damascus kills Iran general to raise conflict tension
Israel blamed for attack on Mezzeh area of Syrian capital
A general and other senior members of Iran’s security forces have died in an air strike on the Syrian capital.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard blamed Israel for the missile attack on a building in Damascus, which it said killed five military advisers as well as a number of Syrian forces.
The air strike is likely to heighten fears that the Israel-hamas war could engulf the Middle East and spread to other regions.
Two of the dead were identified as General Sadegh Omidzadeh, the intelligence deputy of the guard’s expeditionary Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy, Hajj Gholam.
It is understood that they were having a meeting in a residential building in the tightly guarded western area of Mezzeh in the city, home to several diplomatic missions.
Iran’s foreign ministry described the air strike as a “desperate attempt to spread instability in the region”.
It said Iran “reserves its right to respond to the organised terrorism” at the “appropriate time and place”.
The Israeli military did not comment on the air strike.
A few hours later, an Israeli drone strike on a car near the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two Hezbollah members, including a local commander.
Earlier this month, a strike said to be carried out by Israel killed top Hamas commander Saleh Arouri in Beirut. In recent weeks, rockets have been fired from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, adding to tensions along the Lebanon-israel border and attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
According to Iranian sources, commanders from Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Iran, which has armed, trained and funded the Houthis, stepped up its weapons supplies to the group in the wake of the war in Gaza, the sources told the Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US president Joe Biden’s proposals for a Palestinian state after the war against Hamas in Gaza ends.
The two leaders spoke by phone on Friday, and afterwards Biden said he believed “there are a number of types of two-state solutions” and that Netanyahu may be open to one of them.
But the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement yesterday: “In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.”
Relatives of over 100 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza have protested outside Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea – urging the government to take bold steps to free the hostages.
Nearly 25,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its military attack, according to the Hamasrun health ministry in Gaza.
In London’s Guildhall yesterday, Labour shadow foreign secretary David Lammy’s speech calling for a ceasefire in Gaza was disrupted by pro-palestinian protesters.
Lammy was addressing the Fabian Society conference on foreign policy when flag-waving demonstrators mounted the stage shouting: “When will you condemn the genocide? How many more children need to die?”
After they were escorted away by security, more people in the audience stood up to launch verbal attacks on Labour’s stance on the conflict. In his speech, Lammy expressed support for a Palestinian state and branded Netanyahu’s rejection of the plans morally and practically “wrong”.