Israeli embassies 'no longer safe' after Syria strike: Iran

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader warned Sunday that Israeli embassies are "no longer safe" after an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed seven Revolutionary Guards members.

"The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe," Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday's airstrike on Damascus that levelled the Iranian embassy's consular annex, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members including two generals.

"The resistance front is ready; how it (the response) will be, we have to wait," Safavi said, noting that "confronting this brutal regime is a legal and legitimate right".

He also noted that multiple Israeli embassies around the region "have been shuttered".

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Monday's attack, which Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed 16 people, was the fifth raid on Syria in a week blamed on Israel.

Among the dead were generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi who were senior commanders in the Quds Force, the IRGC's foreign operations arm.

Zahedi, 63, had held several commands during a career spanning more than 40 years.

He was the most senior Iranian soldier killed since a United States missile strike at Baghdad airport in 2020 killed Quds Force chief General Qassem Soleimani.

Analysis: Israeli strikes are targeting senior Iranian and Hezbollah leaders, a sign that the once-mutual deterrence that prevented war no longer exists

How Israel is raising the risk of a regional war with Iran ⬇️

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Monday's strike in Damascus took place against the backdrop of the Gaza war, in which over 33,000 people have been killed by Israel's air and ground offensive.

Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the group's October 7 attack which sparked Israel's unprecedented assault on Gaza.

Hamas says its attack - which left around 1,170 people dead - came in response to decades of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.

Iran does not recognise Israel, and the two countries have fought a shadow war for years.

The Islamic republic accuses Israel of having carried out a wave of sabotage attacks and assassinations targeting its nuclear programme.