Seven Killed in Attack Attributed to Israel in Southern Damascus

On Monday, February 9, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that seven people were killed in an attack attributed to Israel in southern Damascus. According to this organization monitoring the developments of the Syrian war, three of the deceased were Syrians, one of whom was described as 'a bodyguard of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander.' The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that the area targeted belongs to Hezbollah Lebanon and that members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are also present there, adding that the identities of the other deceased and the injured from this attack are still unknown. However, Reuters quoted Syrian state media as saying that 'a number of Iranian advisors' were killed in the attack, which occurred at 1 PM local time. Despite the presence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated military forces in Syria, the Islamic Republic claims it does not have a military presence in that country and refers to these individuals as 'advisors.' Mixed reactions from the Islamic Republic followed; Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, initially reported that 'the Israeli attack in Zainabiyah targeted an Iranian advisory center.' However, shortly after, Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador to Syria, stated that 'no advisory center of the Islamic Republic of Iran was targeted' and 'no Iranian citizens or advisors were killed.' Israel has not yet made any official comment regarding this attack. Following the terrorist attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 15, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and over 240 hostages, the intensity and number of attacks attributed to Israel against the positions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxy groups in Syria have increased. Among these attacks is the deadly strike on Monday, December 24, in the suburbs of Damascus, which resulted in the death of Seyyed Reza Mousavi, known as Seyyed Reza, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria. Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, prayed over Mousavi's body in Tehran a few days later and, in his first public reaction to the death of this senior IRGC member, told his family: 'Blessed be his fate.'