Pro-Iran fighters among 7 dead in Israeli strikes near Damascus: monitor

BEIRUT, LEBANON (AFP) - Pro-Tehran fighters were among seven dead in Israeli strikes Monday south of the Syrian capital, a war monitor said, with Iranian media reporting the attack targeted an "Iranian advisory centre".

"Israeli strikes targeted a base belonging to Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, killing seven people" including pro-Iran fighters, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, raising an earlier toll of six.

It was unclear whether civilians were among the dead in the attack on the Sayyida Zeinab district south of Damascus, he added.

Iran's Tasnim news agency reported that "the Zionist regime (Israel) targeted an Iranian advisory centre in the Sayyida Zeinab area".

A Syrian defence ministry statement, citing an unidentified military source, said that "at around 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack... targeting a number of points south of Damascus".

The attack killed "a number of Iranian advisers" as well as civilians, and also caused material losses, the statement added.

In late December, an air strike also blamed on Israel in the Sayyida Zeinab district killed a senior Iranian general.

Quds Force commander Razi Moussavi was the most senior Iranian general to be killed outside the country since a January 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad killed the elite force's chief Qasem Soleimani.

On January 20, a strike on Damascus's Mazzeh neighbourhood targeting the Revolutionary Guards' Syria spy chief killed 13 people, the Observatory had said.

The IRGC confirmed five of its members were killed in that strike, which it also blamed on Israel, its regional arch-foe.