The air strike directly targeted Iran’s consulate building in Damascus at a time when Zahedi was meeting with leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Tag: Syria
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Middle East On Verge Of Full-Scale War? Israel-Hamas Conflict Exposes Erosion Of Self-Restraint In Region | world news
The Middle East countries including some from Asia have now been exposed amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. After Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah opened a front against Jerusalem as well. Now, countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen have become a direct or indirect party of the conflict. The Red Sea has also become a conflict zone with the Yemen-based Houthi rebels attacking cargo ships in solidarity with Palestine and the US forces hitting back at the Houthis in response to ensure free and safe trade movement. The US recently also attacked Houthis inside Yemen. The Houthis, who support the Palestinian armed group Hamas, launched their attacks in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.
According to reports, commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are reportedly present in Yemen, actively involved in directing and overseeing Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
Just yesterday, Iran-backed militants launched a strike on US bases in Iraq injuring several soldiers. The US Central Command said that several personnel are undergoing evaluation for “traumatic brain injuries” and at least one Iraqi service member was wounded in the attack. “At approximately 6:30 pm (Baghdad time) time Jan. 20, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting al-Assad Airbase. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others impacted the base. Damage assessments are ongoing. A number of US personnel are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries. At least one Iraqi service member was wounded,” the US Central Command informed on social media platform X.
In yet another turn of events, Israel attacked a building in the Syrian Capital Damascus on Saturday in which at least five military advisors of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed. Another Israeli operation in southern Lebanon yesterday resulted in the death of two individuals, with at least one confirmed as a member of Hezbollah. Previous similar actions have targeted both Hezbollah members and members of the Palestinian group Hamas. Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi has warned that Israel’s provoking confrontation of multiple fronts has created a risk that the war on Gaza may spill over to the rest of the region.
On Monday, Iran launched 24 missiles at a purported Israeli intelligence center in Erbil, located in Kurdish northern Iraq. Simultaneously, they targeted Islamic State sites in Idlib, northern Syria. By Tuesday, Iran made a significant move by conducting strikes against Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni separatist group active in Pakistan near the Iranian border. Pakistan also retaliated by carrying out similar strike in Iran governed area.
The situation in the Middle East is such that organizations like the Taliban are calling for restraints, defying irony. Not every aspect of the Middle East can be interconnected. The conflicts in the region don’t all have direct ties or originate exclusively from Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, and some may eventually subside. However, they do exhibit a certain cohesion, partially reflecting a shared decline in self-restraint and adherence to the rule of law.
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Five Dead As Israel Bombs Iran-Backed Meeting In Syria’s Capital Damascus | world news
New Delhi: Israel bombed a building in the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday, killing five people who were attending a meeting of “Iran-aligned leaders”, a war monitor said, amid rising regional tensions over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, news agency AFP reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of sources inside Syria, said the Israeli strike targeted a four-storey building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood, a high-security zone that hosts leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ( IRGC) and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.
“They were for sure targeting senior members” of those groups, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. Syrian state media confirmed the attack, saying it was carried out by a “likely Israeli aggression” that hit a residential building in Mazzeh, without providing further details.
Other Syrian media outlets reported loud explosions heard across Damascus around mid-morning, followed by a large plume of smoke rising from the targeted area.
“I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke,” a resident told AFP. “The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances,” he added.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory during the country’s decade-long civil war, mainly targeting Iranian-backed forces and Syrian government positions. But it has intensified its attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas, an ally of Iran and Hezbollah, erupted on October 7.
In December, an Israeli air strike killed a senior general of the IRGC, the most high-ranking Iranian commander to be killed outside Iran since the US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
In the same month, Israel also launched air strikes on eastern and northern Syria, killing dozens of pro-Iran fighters, according to the Observatory. The Israeli strikes have also sparked cross-border clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, another ally of Iran.
Israel rarely comments on its strikes in Syria, but it has repeatedly vowed to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from expanding its influence and presence there.