Iran confirms the killing of a Revolutionary Guard officer in Syria

2024-03-26 18:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Iran has confirmed the death of a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria after airstrikes it blamed on Israel.

State news agency IRNA reported on March 26 that Behruz Vahedi, a member of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, was killed during suspected Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria.

Media close to the Syrian government have accused the United States of these airstrikes. Neither the US nor Israel have commented on this event.

Earlier, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 13 people were killed in the strikes, including 12 non-Syrian members of the Revolutionary Guard.

At least 11 Iranian members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed in suspected attacks in Syria and Lebanon at the start of the war between Israel and Hamas - the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union - in Gaza in October.

Israel launched a deadly offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed during the Hamas attack on October 7 and about 250 others were kidnapped. As a result of the Israeli offensive, over 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, led by Hamas.

Iran's regional allies - part of the so-called 'Axis of Resistance' - have attacked Israeli and US interests in the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza. However, the armed groups have reduced their attacks on US bases after a series of attacks carried out by the US in February.

The attacks in Syria occurred hours before the head of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Tehran for meetings with Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. During a press conference he said that the resolution adopted on March 25 by the United Nations Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Gaza shows that Israel is experiencing "an unprecedented political isolation".

The Revolutionary Guard came to the aid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2013 during the Syrian civil war. Hundreds of Guard commanders and officers, which Iran describes as "military advisers", are believed to be in Syria. Iran has a large network of militias in this Arab state, consisting mainly of Afghan and Pakistani Shiite fighters./ REL