Entire IRGC command wing in Syria was eliminated in strike, Bloomberg reveals

Story by MAARIV ONLINE     April 20, 2024

An ambulance is parked outside the Iranian embassy after a suspected Israeli strike on Monday on Iran’s consulate, which Iran said had killed seven military personnel Damascus, Syria April 2, 2024. (credit: FIRAS MAKDESI/REUTERS)© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

The Bloomberg television network revealed overnight into Saturday that in the attack attributed to Israel at the Iranian consulate in Syria, the entire command hierarchy responsible for the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Lebanon was killed. According to the report, “the senior officers were pivotal for Hezbollah’s activities in the region.”

According to the reports, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Rahimi, along with other officers who were killed, were certain that the consulate building next to the embassy was “the safest” in Damascus and that Israel would not dare to attack the site.

Before the airstrike on the consulate building in Damascus, the residences of the ambassador and the consul were supposed to be transferred to a new apartment complex further down the same street, where the two brothers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also live. Shortly before the attack, the senior ranking officials of the IRGC in Syria met on the second floor of the consulate building and decided to stay there.

Iran investigates the Syria attack

The strike at the Iranian consulate in Syria led Iran, for the first time, to respond directly and attack Israel. Immediately after the assassination, Iran began suspecting that groups in Syria were involved in several assassination cases of IRGC personnel in the country over the past few years.

Iran’s suspicion focuses on 18 commanders who were assassinated over a short time in attacks that were attributed to Israel. This is according to a Syrian defector who opposed the Assad regime, who claims to have spoken with an Iranian official.

According to the Syrian defector, after the assassination of Raza Musawi in Syria in December 2023, a joint investigation between the two countries began, attempting to trace a possible security breach. However, at a certain point, Iran chose to conduct an independent investigation with Hezbollah, following concerns that the Syrian intelligence was interfering with the investigation.

The independent investigation concluded that the security breaches that led to the assassination were under high-level political and security cover, and it was unlikely that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was unaware of them.

The defector further added that what heightened suspicions in Tehran was that the Hezbollah operatives who were assassinated in the country were linked to Syrian security services. Their assassination was possible through espionage, using advanced technology.