Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel and the US in response to an airstrike in Syria which killed a group of Tehran’s senior commanders.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that seven officers, including brigadier generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, were killed in the airstrike on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus on Monday. Zahedi was a senior commander with the Quds Force – the IRGC unit tasked with operations overseas – and Rahimi was his deputy.
Officials in Syria and Iran have blamed Israel for the attack. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, while reserving its rights to take countermeasures, decides on the type of reaction and punishment of the aggressor,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement quoted by the IRNA news agency.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on X (formerly Twitter) that Israel’s close ally the US “must be held accountable.”
Israel has not commented on the strike. The Israeli government rarely publicly acknowledges airstrikes in Syria, which Damascus has repeatedly denounced as violations of its sovereignty.
The Jewish state has accused Iran of masterminding the deadly October 7 attack on Israeli citizens, which kickstarted the ongoing war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck what it said were Iran-linked militants in Lebanon.
Tehran has pledged to continue its support for Hamas and other Palestinian groups, but insisted that Hamas had independently decided to invade Israeli territory.