Iran vows response to Israeli raids in Syria

TEHERAN — Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi condemned Israel's "cowardly assassination" of five Iranian "military advisers" in Syria on Saturday, vowing that the country will respond to the Israeli "terrorist" attacks.

Raisi made the remarks in a statement published on the website of his office while extending condolences on the deaths of the five members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday morning on a residential neighborhood in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Raisi said the killing was "a terrorist move" through "a flagrant violation of Syrian airspace", adding that Israel's attacks "will not remain unanswered by Iran".

Earlier on Saturday, the IRGC said five of its members serving as military advisers in Syria as well as several Syrian forces and civilians were killed in the Israeli missile attack on the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus.

It identified the slain Iranians as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aqazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeid Karimi, and Mohammad-Amin Samadi.

According to a statement issued by the Syrian army, Israel carried out the airstrike from the occupied Golan Heights at 10:20 am local time on Saturday.

Advisory role

Iran says it has an advisory role in Syria, where its advisers work at the invitation of Damascus.

Israel has repeatedly launched airstrikes against what it calls Iran-linked targets inside Syria.

There was no comment from Israel, which typically does not discuss such attacks publicly, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, missile attacks in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen over the weekend threw into sharp focus the increasing risk of the conflict in Gaza triggering a wider conflict across the Middle East region.

While fighting raged across the besieged Gaza Strip, missiles and rockets launched later on Saturday by militants in Iraq, where such groups have targeted US forces, hit Al-Asad air base, the US Central Command said.

A number of US personnel were being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries and one Iraqi service member was wounded, it said.

Agencies - Xinhua