Four
senior members of Iran's security forces have been killed in a suspected air
strike on the Syrian capital.
Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard blamed Israel for the attack, which it said killed four
military advisers as well as a number of Syrian forces.
Israel has not
commented. For years it has carried out strikes on Iranian-linked targets in
Syria.
Such strikes have
intensified since the Israel-Gaza war began following Hamas's 7 October attacks
on Israel.
Senior figures among
the Revolutionary Guard - a major military, political and
economic force in Iran - have been present in Syria since
the civil war began there in 2011, helping to support the regime of President
Bashar al-Assad against widespread rebellion to his rule.
Saturday's attack is
understood to have taken place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood, south-west
Damascus, an area home to a military airport, as well as the UN headquarters in
Damascus, embassies and restaurants.
A resident told AFP
news agency that they saw "explosions" in the western Mazzeh area and
"a large cloud of smoke".
"The sound was
similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of
ambulances," he added.
Iran's semi-official
Mehr news agency said the attacks killed the IRGC's Syria intelligence chief,
his deputy, as well as two other Guard members.
The state-run Syrian
Arab News Agency quoted a military source saying it had managed to stop some of
the missiles, but that the attacks had killed some people, and "injured a
number of civilians". Buildings were also destroyed, it said.
.
Last month a suspected Israeli air strike just
outside Damascus killed a senior IRGC commander.
The Middle East has
been on heightened alert since 7 October, when Hamas launched an attack on
southern Israel, killing around 1,300 people, mainly civilians, and taking 240
hostages back to Gaza. More than 132 hostages are thought to still be held in
the territory.
More than 24,900
people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military response,
according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel says its ground and air
operation in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas.
The conflict has
raised concerns about a wider war spreading around the region, particularly
between fierce rivals Israel and Iran, and amid a series of overlapping crises.
Fears about an even
wider conflict were further heightened this week, when Iran exchanged strikes with
its neighbour Pakistan.
On Tuesday, Iran
admitted carrying out a missile and drone attack in south-western Pakistan,
killing two children, saying it was targeting an "Iranian terrorist
group" in Pakistan.
Days later,
Islamabad hit back, launching strikes it said were targeting "terrorist
hideouts" in south-eastern Iran, killing nine people.
Although both sides
insisted they were targeting militant bases in each other's countries, Iran and
Pakistan withdrew their ambassadors from the respective capitals.
But following talks,
diplomatic ties were restored.
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