An officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Damascus shortly after midnight Friday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The report identified the dead officer as Milad Haidari, saying he was a consultant. No rank was given, but the report said he was “martyred” in the attack, which was blamed on Israel. The term is usually a designation given to those killed on official duty.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatened to avenge the killing of the officer in his announcement, according to the report. “The Zionist regime will undoubtedly receive a response for this crime.”
The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported earlier that the Syrian air defenses intercepted “enemy missiles” over the capital shortly after midnight, although the “aggression” succeeded in causing some material damage. Damascus regularly claims to have successfully intercepted IDF strikes, but military analysts question these assertions.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strikes targeted a weapons depot of government forces and Iranian-backed groups south of Damascus.
Less than 24 hours ago, SANA said that the Air Force had targeted sites in Damascus, wounding two soldiers and causing material damage.
Screen capture from video showing an alleged Israeli strike on Damascus, March 31, 2023 (screen capture: Twitter)
As a rule, the Israeli military does not comment on specific strikes in Syria, but it has acknowledged conducting hundreds of strikes against Iran-backed groups trying to gain a foothold in the country over the past decade.
The Israeli army says it is also attacking arms shipments believed to be destined for those groups, led by the Lebanese Hezbollah organization. In addition, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
The two attacks came in the wake of two attacks that targeted Aleppo International Airport in recent weeks, and were also attributed to Israel. The airport’s runway has been temporarily closed due to damage.
One of the strikes last week targeted an underground munitions depot at the nearby Nairab military airport, according to two unnamed regional intelligence sources who spoke to Reuters news agency. The sources said the site was used to store guided missile systems delivered by Iranian cargo flights.
Israel also carried out a rare daytime raid in northwestern Syria earlier in the month, wounding three soldiers and causing damage, SANA reported.
In January, the Syrian military said the Israeli military fired missiles towards Damascus International Airport, temporarily putting it out of service and killing two soldiers. That attack came amid Israeli fears that Damascus airport would be used to transport Iranian weapons into the country.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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