The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the death of four of its advisors following an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential building in the Mezzeh neighborhood of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The IRGC stated that “the Zionist entity has once again aggressed upon the Syrian capital Damascus,” and during the air attack, a number of Syrian forces and four military advisors from the “Revolutionary Guards” were killed without specifying their identities.

The official Iranian television reported that the airstrike today, Saturday, January 20, resulted in the killing of two advisors in the Revolutionary Guard, specifically an intelligence official of the Quds Force affiliated with the IRGC, Sardar Hajj Sadegh Omid Zadeh, and his deputy, Hajj Gholam Mahram, as also reported by the Iranian Mehr News Agency.

Iranian television mentioned that the Israeli airstrike on Damascus is a response to the assassination of an officer in the Israeli foreign intelligence service (Mossad), Pishro, a few days ago in the city of Erbil, Iraq.

At 10:00 AM today, Israel targeted a residential building in the Mezzeh West Villas area in Damascus, with no official comment from the Syrian regime at the time of publishing this news.

The local newspaper Al-Watan reported that the targeted building in Mezzeh is a four-story building inhabited by residents and that it was completely destroyed.

Despite the Revolutionary Guard’s confirmation of the death of its advisors, Syrian official media or those close to the Syrian regime have not reported any casualties other than civilians, as they do not discuss the nature of the targets or the individuals targeted by Israel in Syria.

The general manager of Al-Mouwasat Hospital, Dr. Essam al-Amin, announced the arrival of one deceased citizen and three injured persons to the hospital as a preliminary count, according to what was conveyed by Al-Madina FM radio station.

A representative of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Syria, Ismail al-Sindawai, denied that the building targeted by Israel had any connection with the Jihad Movement, pointing out that the general secretary of the movement, Ziad Nakhaleh, is safe.

Israel has not declared responsibility for the strike, nor has it claimed targeting the advisors at the time of publishing this news.

Israeli targeting of a building in the Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus – January 20, 2024 (Online image)

Iran periodically announces the deaths of its elements and leaders on Syrian territory or even reveals the identities of the bodies of fighters killed earlier in Syria, and it rarely mourns advisors or leaders of this kind.

On December 25, 2023, an Israeli plane bombed a house in the town of Sayyidah Zaynab in the Damascus countryside, killing one of the oldest advisors of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria, Sayyed Razi Mousavi.

Damascus and Homs are considered the main centers within the framework of Iranian activity, and both regions are “short-term storage stations” for weapons before being delivered to “Hezbollah” in Lebanon and “long-term storage stations” for future use by the “Shiite axis” in Syria, according to a report by the Israeli research center “Alma,” published on April 2, 2023.

On January 15, Iran targeted locations in Syria and Iraq with 24 ballistic missiles from southern and western Iran, with a range exceeding 1,200 kilometers; 11 of them aimed at what the Revolutionary Guard described as the “Mossad’s espionage headquarters” in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Four missiles were directed at what was described as a “headquarters for the Islamic State organization” in Idlib, and nine missiles targeted “other terrorist groups” in areas outside the control of the Syrian regime.