Beirut (AFP) – An Israeli strike on Damascus killed five people in a building where "Iran-aligned leaders" were meeting on Saturday, a war monitor said, as regional tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas war.

An Israeli missile strike targeted a four-storey building, killing five people... and destroying the whole building where Iran-aligned leaders were meeting," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria said the targeted neighbourhood is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.

"They were for sure targeting senior members" of those groups, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The mid-morning strike, which caused a large plume of smoke to billow into the sky, was also reported by Syrian state media.

"An attack targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression," the official SANA news agency reported. It did not say if there were any casualties.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.

Civil defence were busy searching for survivors under the rubble of the totally collapsed building, he said.

The Mazzeh area is also home to the United Nations' headquarters, embassies and restaurants.

"I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke," a resident told AFP.

"The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances," he added.

Hundreds of Israeli strikes
During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions.

But it has intensified attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas, which like Lebanon's Hezbollah movement is an ally of Iran, began on October 7.

In December, an Israeli air strike killed a senior general with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the military force said.

Razi Moussavi was the most senior commander of the Guards' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, to be killed outside Iran since a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020 killed the Force's commander, Qasem Soleimani.

In the same month, air strikes in eastern Syria, "likely" carried out by Israel, killed at least 23 pro-Iran fighters, the Observatory said at the time, reporting four more dead in the country's north.

Recent months have also seen regular cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch foe Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad's government, to expand its presence there.

Since 2011, Syria has endured a bloody conflict that has claimed over half a million lives and displaced several million people and plunged.

God1000:
Why not strike Iran directly, is Israel afraid of iran?

God1000:
Why not strike Iran directly, is Israel afraid of iran?

Botragelad:

Haha. Afraid you say? When did you last hear of Iran bumping off or having a go at IDF leaders?

Israel have been after Iran's leaders, hunting and striking them. What did they do about it, apart from making a load of bollocks in the press. Let's say it's a piece of cake to strike Iran's generals outside of Iran than in Iran. Lol.

Cope harder!

NzogbuNzogbu:
the joke is on quran and coward muslims who allah told must destroy israel

God1000:
tell netanyahu and his extremist government to be careful before they set the entire middle east on fire.

Iran isn't Hamas

God1000:
I'm not a Muslim but where in the Quran did Allah instruct Muslims to destroy Israel?

Have you been oppressed before?

God1000:
tell netanyahu and his extremist government to be careful before they set the entire middle east on fire.

Iran isn't Hamas

NzogbuNzogbu:
taqqiya

Quran commands muslims to make sure jews don't exist

Why is iran promising to wipe jews off the face of the earth since 1900 and haven't fulfilled its coward pledge

Botragelad:

Haha. Such a cry baby you are!
You hardly make sense. Why's that?

God1000:

Which chapter of Quran commands Muslims to destroy jews?

God1000:
I will never make sense to you because you are brainwashed

God1000:
Why not strike Iran directly, is Israel afraid of iran?

God1000:

Which chapter of Quran commands Muslims to destroy jews?

AgbadoDie:


If Israel strike Nigerian Army General in Ghana, what should Nigeria do?

Should they wait till Israel kills the General inside Nigeria before they act?

I don't know the number of kids we have in this forum self.
Iran is a full blown puppet

God1000:
you saw what happened recently between Iran and Pakistan because Iran attacked Pakistani soil and Pakistan retaliated, that's the kind of attack I want Israel to carry out inside Iran

NzogbuNzogbu:
na small Pakistan iran be wan use show strength yet have not retailiated attack from Pakistan

LifeofDream:

Did you just say small Pakistan??

Hope you know Pakistan is ahead of Israel militarily..
Pakistan have the human, finance resources and military to send Israel to stone age excluding their nuclear weapon..

I can't imagine you're calling Pakistan "small", I wonder the kind of people on this forum...

God1000:
Why not strike Iran directly, is Israel afraid of iran?

RepoMan007:
Iran is using proxies against Israel to remain or appear neutral and harmless to the rest ofghe world. Israel can strike them but won't. Thy will prefer to wait until Iran is close to having potent a nuclear before striking Iran.

Iran too are only waiting until there is a weapon that can almost practically wipe off mini Israel from the world map. It is not that they don't or cannot strike Israel directly.