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An Israeli strike on Damascus killed ten people in a building where "Iran-aligned leaders" were meeting on Saturday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Among the dead are four members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the head of the info unit, according to sources close to Syria, as reported by Reuters.
The four-story building was totally destroyed. Iran-aligned leaders were meeting, according to SOHR, a British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria. It said that the targeted neighborhood is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.
"They were for sure targeting senior members" of those groups, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
"The Revolutionary Guards' Syria intel chief, his deputy, and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel," said Iran's 'Mehr' news agency, quoting an informed but unnamed source. For their part, the IRGC confirmed in a statement the death of the head of the Al-Quds Brigades intelligence unit in Syria, Haj Sadiq Omidzadeh, his deputy, and two other advisors.
The Syrian official news agency, SANA, also reported this mid-morning “attack which targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression."
The Mazzeh neighborhood is home to UN headquarters and embassies, including those of Lebanon and Iran.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off, with ambulances, firefighters, and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.
The civil defense was busy searching for survivors under the rubble of the totally collapsed building, he said.
"I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke," a resident told AFP.
"The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances," he added.
With AFP
The four-story building was totally destroyed. Iran-aligned leaders were meeting, according to SOHR, a British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria. It said that the targeted neighborhood is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.
"They were for sure targeting senior members" of those groups, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
"The Revolutionary Guards' Syria intel chief, his deputy, and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel," said Iran's 'Mehr' news agency, quoting an informed but unnamed source. For their part, the IRGC confirmed in a statement the death of the head of the Al-Quds Brigades intelligence unit in Syria, Haj Sadiq Omidzadeh, his deputy, and two other advisors.
The Syrian official news agency, SANA, also reported this mid-morning “attack which targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression."
The Mazzeh neighborhood is home to UN headquarters and embassies, including those of Lebanon and Iran.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off, with ambulances, firefighters, and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.
The civil defense was busy searching for survivors under the rubble of the totally collapsed building, he said.
"I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke," a resident told AFP.
"The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances," he added.
With AFP
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