ALBAWABA - Iran has promised to retaliate against Israel and the United States following an airstrike in Syria that killed a group of senior Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders.
The IRGC reported that seven officers, including brigadier generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, were killed in an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement that "officials in Syria and Iran have blamed Israel for the attack. The Islamic Republic of Iran, while reserving its rights to take countermeasures, decides on the type of reaction and punishment of the aggressor,".
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that the US and Israel must be held accountable for airstrike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Syria on Monday.
The consulate, located near the main diplomatic building in Damascus' Mezzeh area, was struck around 5 p.m on Monday. Photos from the area show piles of wreckage and twisted steel, with an Iranian flag still flying from a nearby pole.
Several IRGC military advisers were inside the facility at the time of the attack, and seven were killed, according to the IRGC statement.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, up to 11 persons were killed, including eight Iranians, two Syrians, and one Lebanese, all of them were combatants.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the strike was a "flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the foundational principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises", AlJazeera reported.
Saying the strike was "a significant threat to regional peace and security", the Iranian mission urged the UN Security Council to condemn the attack. It said Tehran reserved the right "to take a decisive response".
