Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday strongly condemned the deaths of five members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a suspected Israeli missile strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to Iranian state media Press TV.
Reacting to the strike — in what is the latest tit-for-tat escalation of hostilities that further risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict — Raisi vowed that Iran would retaliate, saying such “cowardly” acts will not go unanswered.
Raisi also said the attack would be “another stain on the record of all governments who claim to be the advocates of human rights because it violated Syria’s airspace and trampled on human and international laws,” according to Iranian state media.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense claimed Israel “launched an air attack from the Golan Heights at 10:20 a.m. local time that targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus.” In a statement, the ministry said its defenses managed to intercept and shoot “down a number of the enemy’s missiles.”
The Israeli military declined to comment on the Iranian and Syrian allegations that they were behind the attack. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told CNN: “We do not comment on foreign reports.”
