11 Iranian officers killed in Israeli airstrike in Syria: report

• Eleven Iranian officers have reportedly been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Syrian airport.
• According to Al Arabiya newspaper, airstrikes hit Damascus International Airport on Thursday night.
• The officers were members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Eleven senior Iranian officials were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Syrian airport, Saudi news agency Al Arabiya reported, citing unnamed sources.

The report said the officers were members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and were at Damascus International Airport to welcome a “senior delegation”.

It said the targeted members of the Revolutionary Guards were responsible for overseeing Iranian-backed forces in eastern Syria. Al Arabiya.

The Revolutionary Guards refuted the claims, Iranian state media Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported, with Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif calling the report “baseless.”

The Israel Defense Forces told Business Insider it had “no comment” on the report.

Benam Ben Taleburu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told Fox News Digital: “If this attack is independently verified, it would be further evidence that Israel is able to contain and deter Axis elements. Deaf,” he said. While fighting to defeat Hamas in Gaza, it is also resisting elsewhere. ”

Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have launched attacks on Israel and its allies supporting Hamas.

“The Revolutionary Guards have long considered Syria an important regional base for projecting power into the Eastern Mediterranean,” Talebroux said. “It should come as a shock to no one that the Guard’s elite are operating in Syria. No,” he added.

This comes after an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital on Monday killed the Revolutionary Guards’ top commander and senior adviser.

Iran’s military chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, said Israel had made a “strategic mistake” in killing the general. According to IRNA, Syed Raj Mousavi said the strike would increase resistance against the state.

The Revolutionary Guards responded to the news by saying Israel would suffer from the killings.

“The usurper and barbaric Zionist regime will pay the price for this crime,” the group said in a televised statement, according to Reuters.