{"id":15505,"date":"2024-04-02T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/3-top-iranian-commanders-are-reported-killed-in-israeli-strike-in-syria\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T00:00:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T00:00:22","slug":"3-top-iranian-commanders-are-reported-killed-in-israeli-strike-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/3-top-iranian-commanders-are-reported-killed-in-israeli-strike-in-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Top Iranian Commanders Are Reported Killed in Israeli Strike in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/01\/multimedia\/01mideast-crisis-ledeall-1-gclq\/01mideast-crisis-ledeall-1-gclq-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"3 Top Iranian Commanders Are Reported Killed in Israeli Strike in Syria\" title=\"3 Top Iranian Commanders Are Reported Killed in Israeli Strike in Syria\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At least three senior commanders and four officers overseeing Iran\u2019s covert operations in the Middle East were killed on Monday when Israeli warplanes struck a building in Damascus that is part of the Iranian Embassy complex, according to Iranian and Syrian officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The strike in Damascus, the Syrian capital, appeared to be among the deadliest attacks in a yearslong shadow war between Israel and Iran that has included the assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That covert war has moved into the open as tensions between the countries have intensified over Israel\u2019s military campaign in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, the Iranian-backed militia that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Four Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, confirmed that Israel had been behind the strike in Damascus, but denied that the building had diplomatic status.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the Syrian ambassador to Iran, Shafiq Dayoub, said the strike had targeted a diplomatic building and was a \u201cclear and complete violation of all international conventions and norms.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Video <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=431760112707687\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">circulating on social media<\/a> after the strike showed a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/33%C2%B030'14.1%22N+36%C2%B015'37.6%22E\/@33.5040135,36.2599702,215m\/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d33.5039259!4d36.2604392?entry=ttu\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">destroyed building<\/a> next to the embassy, and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IranNuances\/status\/1774820140061991202\/photo\/1\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">photographs<\/a> showed an entrance gate with a sign identifying it as the consular section. The embassy <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IranembassyDam\/status\/1774859846136795161\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said on X<\/a> that the building housed a consular section and the ambassador\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Footage broadcast by Iranian and Syrian news agencies showed a ruined building, burned cars, shattered glass and debris on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The dead included Gen. Mohamad Reza Zahedi, 65, who oversaw Iran\u2019s covert military operations in Syria and Lebanon, two other generals and four officers in the Quds Force, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that seeks to prevent wars, said that targeting a diplomatic facility would be \u201cakin to targeting Iran on its own soil.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israeli officials said the building was an outpost of the Revolutionary Guards, making it a legitimate military target. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, strongly condemned the strike and said he had spoken to his Syrian counterpart about the \u201cZionist regime\u2019s attack on the consulate section of the Islamic Republic\u2019s embassy in Damascus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNetanyahu has lost his mental balance because he has faced back-to-back defeat in Gaza and has not achieved the Zionists\u2019 ambitious goals,\u201d Mr. Amir Abdollahian said in a statement, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The strike came as Israeli soldiers withdrew from Gaza\u2019s largest hospital complex, Al-Shifa, leaving it badly battered after a two-week raid in which the Israeli military said it had killed about 200 Palestinian militants and arrested hundreds of others after extended firefights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Taysir al-Tanna, a longtime vascular surgeon at the Gaza City hospital, said that many of the main buildings \u2014 including the emergency, obstetrics and surgical wards \u2014 had been badly damaged in the fighting and the main gate smashed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNow it looks like a wasteland,\u201d Dr. al-Tanna said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Osama al-Ashi, a Gazan who went to the area to check on his apartment after hearing that the Israeli military had withdrawn, said that he was immediately struck by the stench of decomposing bodies and that he had seen mountains of rubble and burned buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe whole time we were walking,\u201d he said, \u201cwe were stepping on body parts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. al-Ashi said that many of the dead appeared to have been shot. Others, he said, appeared to have been unearthed when Israeli forces bulldozed temporary cemeteries on hospital grounds. Many buildings around the hospital had been destroyed by bombs, missiles and tank shells, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe scenes there were difficult to tolerate as a human being,\u201d he said. \u201cYou feel like you are in a horror movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military said that the Palestinians killed had been militants and that those who were arrested had been suspected militants, including some believed to be senior commanders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It said two Israeli soldiers had been killed and eight others wounded in the raid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, blamed militants for the destruction at the hospital, saying they had fortified themselves in hospital wards, fired on soldiers and refused calls to surrender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe had to fire on the buildings in order to stop that and to kill the terrorists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israeli forces evacuated displaced civilians sheltering at the compound, as well as some patients, and placed other patients in a building away from the fighting, Admiral Hagari said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The World Health Organization said on Sunday that at least 21 patients had died since the Israeli raid began in mid-March, though the causes of death were unclear. By this weekend, 107 patients remained \u2014 30 of them bedridden \u2014 without drinking water and with only minimal medication, the Gazan Health Ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israeli forces first raided Al-Shifa in November, maintaining that Hamas militants had built a command center in tunnels underneath it. Hamas and the hospital director said the facility was solely used as a refuge for civilians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military later publicized some evidence to support its case, including by showing reporters a fortified tunnel constructed underneath the hospital grounds. An <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/02\/12\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html\" title=\"\">investigation<\/a> by The New York Times found that the evidence suggested that Hamas had used the site for cover and stored weapons there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After little more than a week, Israeli troops withdrew in compliance with a brief cease-fire. But after the fighting resumed, Israeli forces closed in on the hospital again in March in an attempt to root out what they said was a renewed insurgency by armed groups in northern Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHamas and Islamic Jihad have started to rebuild themselves in the north,\u201d said Admiral Hagari. \u201cAnd they re-based themselves inside Shifa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas called the destruction at the hospital \u201ca horrific crime\u201d and said Israel had perpetrated it \u201cwith full and unlimited support from the administration of U.S. President Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a visit to Al-Shifa on Saturday, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, declared the raid \u201cextremely successful\u201d and said it had showed militant groups that \u201ca hospital is not a safe place\u201d for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israeli officials and a member of the Revolutionary Guards, which oversee the Quds Force, said the Damascus strike on Monday had targeted a meeting in which Iranian intelligence officials and Palestinian militants were to discuss the war in Gaza. Among the Iranian officials were leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group armed and funded by Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Syria\u2019s defense ministry said the Israeli strike occurred about 5 p.m. local time, when fighter jets entered Syria from the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The attack came days after <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/29\/world\/middleeast\/israel-syria-airstrikes.html\" title=\"\">airstrikes killed soldiers<\/a> near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Syria\u2019s state news media and an independent organization reported, in what appeared to be one of the heaviest Israeli attacks in the country in years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those strikes on Friday killed 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian from a pro-Iranian militia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that tracks Syria\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel\u2019s military did not comment after those strikes, but its defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said, \u201cWe will pursue Hezbollah every place it operates, and we will expand the pressure and the pace of the attacks.\u201d He promised more operations in Lebanon, Syria and \u201cother more distant locations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Reporting was contributed by <!-- -->Abu Bakr Bashir<!-- -->, <!-- -->Hwaida Saad<!-- -->,<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>Arijeta Lajka<!-- -->, <!-- -->Riley Mellen<!-- -->, <!-- -->Cassandra Vinograd<!-- --> and <!-- -->Eric Schmitt<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least three senior commanders and four officers overseeing Iran\u2019s covert operations in the Middle East were killed on Monday when Israeli warplanes struck a building in Damascus that is part of the Iranian Embassy complex, according to Iranian and Syrian officials. The strike in Damascus, the Syrian capital, appeared to be among the deadliest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/01\/multimedia\/01mideast-crisis-ledeall-1-gclq\/01mideast-crisis-ledeall-1-gclq-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21320,16121,1178,1177,1679,2335,19366,1846],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15507,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15505\/revisions\/15507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}