Saudi Media: 11 Commanders and Members of the IRGC Killed in Israeli Attack in Syria

Saudi media reported on Friday, December 29, that 11 commanders and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed as a result of an Israeli attack on Damascus Airport on Thursday night. Two Saudi outlets, Al-Hadath and Al-Arabiya, cited sources stating that the IRGC commanders and Iran-backed militia groups were waiting to receive 'a high-ranking delegation' during the attack. Among those killed in this attack was Nort Rashid, a commander of the Iran-affiliated militia groups in eastern Syria. The Saudi media did not disclose the identities of the IRGC commanders and members killed in the attack. However, according to Fars, an Iranian media outlet close to the IRGC, Ramadan Sharif, the IRGC spokesperson, denied the report of 11 IRGC members being killed in the bombing of Damascus Airport. Meanwhile, Syrian intelligence and military sources announced on Friday that Israel targeted the main air defense base of the country on Thursday night, marking the latest attack of this kind since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Gaza. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also noted this attack as the seventy-third Israeli attack on Syria during the current calendar year but did not mention the number or identities of the potential casualties resulting from it. In recent years, numerous attacks have been carried out against the IRGC and Iran-affiliated militia groups in Syria, which have been attributed to Israel, but the country has rarely claimed responsibility for them. Nevertheless, Naftali Bennett, the former Prime Minister of Israel, revealed in a rare statement on Thursday, December 29, through an article in the Wall Street Journal that during his premiership, he ordered the country's forces to attack Iran twice. The attack attributed to Israel occurred on Thursday night, three days after another deadly attack in the suburbs of Damascus, which resulted in the death of 'Seyyed Reza Mousavi, known as Seyyed Reza, a senior advisor of the IRGC in Syria.' Israeli media referred to Seyyed Reza Mousavi as 'the highest-ranking IRGC member killed since Qassem Soleimani.' One day after the killing of this senior IRGC member in Syria, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Minister of Defense, stated that his country had responded to attacks against it 'in Iraq, Yemen, and Iran.' On the same day, the Persian-speaking spokesperson of the Israeli army, in an interview with the Persian section of Voice of America, refrained from confirming or denying Israel's involvement in the death of Reza Mousavi, stating that any attack on Israeli borders would be met with a decisive response from the Israeli army.