The Cradle, January 20, 2024 —
Earlier in the week Iran destroyed an alleged Mossad base in northern Iraq.
An Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital Damascus killed four members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the early hours of 20 January.
“An Israeli aggression today targeted a residential building in the Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus,” SANA reports.
According to Al-Mayadeen, the building targeted consisted of three stories and is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“Once again, the evil and criminal Zionist regime invaded the city of Damascus, the capital of Syria,” The IRGC statement following today’s attack read. “During the air attack […] several Syrian forces and four military advisers of the Islamic Republic of Iran were martyred.”
Two high-ranking members of the IRGC were among those killed: Commander Haj Sadegh Omidzadeh, deputy intelligence officer of the IRGC Quds Force, and his deputy, Haj Gholam.
This attack comes days after Iran targeted a Mossad-affiliated base in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region (IKR) in retaliation for an earlier assassination of an IRGC commander in Syria.
On 16 January, Iranian missiles leveled an alleged Mossad base in IKR’s capital, Erbil, that was reportedly involved in coordinating the recent assassinations of several commanders of the IRGC and the Resistance Axis.
The IRGC noted that this base was used “to develop espionage operations and plan acts of terrorism” across the region, specifically in Iran.
The Iranian operation in IKR killed Kurdish oil tycoon Peshraw Dizayee, owner of the Empire and Falcon Group, who have reportedly facilitated oil exports to Israel.
Iraq condemned the IRGC operation, saying it is “an aggression against the sovereignty of Iraq and the security of the Iraqi people, and an insult to good neighborliness and the security of the region.”