Iran’s army chief claimed that his country’s enemies would “regret” the deaths of the seven Revolutionary Guards who were killed in a strike on Damascus, and he once again promised reprisal.
Tehran, which blames its arch-enemy Israel for the airstrike on the Syrian capital on Monday, has threatened to exact revenge. Israel has not responded.
The assault destroyed the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus and killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), two of whom were generals.
Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri stated on Saturday that Iran’s retaliation “will be carried out at the right time, with the necessary precision and planning, and with maximum damage to the enemy so that they regret their action.”
He was speaking at a ceremony in the central city of Isfahan to commemorate Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the two dead brigadier generals from the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor headquartered in Britain, claims that Zahedi, 63, was the commander of the Quds Force for the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Lebanon.
Throughout his more than 40-year career, he had a number of posts. He was the most senior Iranian soldier to die since General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, was killed in 2020 by an American missile strike at Baghdad airport.
At the event in Isfahan on Saturday, attendees chanted “Down with Israel!” and “Down with the United States!”
Israel “will be punished” for the killings, according to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top leader of the Islamic republic.
Monday’s strike in Damascus took place against the backdrop of the Gaza war which began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians.
Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the attack which sparked massive Israeli retaliation against the Gaza Strip.
At least 33,091 people have died in the Palestinian territory over the nearly six months of fighting, according to a report released on Friday by the Hamas-run health ministry.The Observatory reported that 16 people were killed in Monday’s bombing in Damascus, which was Israel’s fifth raid on Syria in as many days.
Iran refuses to acknowledge Israel, and the two nations have been engaged in a protracted proxy conflict.
Iran charges Israel with orchestrating a series of killings and sabotage operations aimed at its nuclear program.
On Friday, IRGC chief General Hossein Salami warned that Israel “cannot escape the consequences” of the Damascus strike.
