Israeli airstrike kills 11 members of Iran’s IRGC in Syria: Sources

An Israeli airstrike targeting Damascus International Airport late on Thursday killed 11 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), sources said on Friday.

The targeted IRGC members, responsible for overseeing Iran-backed forces in eastern Syria, were present at the airport to welcome a senior delegation, the sources said.

The IRGC has denied the report, calling it “baseless.”

Syrian state media and the Syrian defense ministry had earlier reported Israeli airstrikes in southern Syria and near Damascus.

Israel rarely comments on strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-foe Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad’s government, to expand its presence in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported Israeli strikes targeting a Syrian air defense position in the country’s southern Sweida province, as well as near Damascus international airport.

Earlier this week, the IRGC said in a statement that one of its top commanders in Syria, Brig. Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi, was killed in an Israeli “missile attack.” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a message the same day, warning that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”