Senior IRGC Officers Reportedly Killed In Israeli Attack In Syria

Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of IRGC's Quds Force, attends the funeral of Razi Mousavi, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Syria. December 28, 2023.
Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of IRGC's Quds Force, attends the funeral of Razi Mousavi, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Syria. December 28, 2023.

Saudi and Israeli media reported Friday that 11 senior officers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed in the Thursday Israeli air strike on Damascus airport.

According to Al Arabiya sources, the targeted IRGC members, responsible for overseeing Iran-backed forces in eastern Syria, were at the airport to welcome a senior delegation. IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif denied the report on Friday without providing any details.

One of the IRGC commanders in Syria, Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid Ali-Nour, was also injured in the airstrike, Saudi media channel Al-Hadath reported.

The attack near the airport came "one whole day after the airport resumed flights," said the British-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel rarely comments on strikes targeting Syria, but it keeps reiterating that it will not allow its nemesis Iran to entrench itself in the country. Israel has been regularly attacking targets in Syria since 2017 to weaken Iran's attempts to strengthen its military presence in the war-torn country and build up a threat on Israel's northern borders. In the past year, Syrian airports have become frequent targets, as Iran is reportedly shipping weapons for its proxy forces by planes.

Earlier this week, the IRGC confirmed that one of its top commanders in Syria, Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi, was killed in an Israeli “missile attack.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and several other military commanders have issued messages, warning that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”