Second IRGC officer dies after Friday attack on Syria by Israel

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, has said the two IRGC members who died in an Israeli attack near Damascus, Syria, died fighting “terrorism” that Israel supports and said the Israeli attacks are a violation of Syrian sovereignty and international law.

Israel carried out an air attack near Damascus on Friday, Syrian state media reported, the second attack near the capital in two days.

“It is obvious that the blood of these eminent martyrs will not be wasted and in addition to politically and legally pursuing these violating and criminal actions, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to respond at an appropriate time and place to the terrorism of the fake Israeli regime,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

The death of IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) military adviser and officer Milad Haydari was announced by Iranian media on Sunday morning.

Iranian semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Friday that a military adviser to the IRGC died of his injuries after the Israeli air attack.

“Meqdad Meqdani was wounded during the Zionist attack on Friday dawn and was martyred,” Mehr news said.

‘Sprays of missiles’

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that they heard at least three big explosions over the city overnight.

Citing a military source, state media reported that Israel fired “sprays of missiles” just after midnight.

“Syrian air defences intercepted the missiles and shot down a number of them,” the source said, saying the aggression caused some material damage.

The IRGC vowed to respond to the Israeli attack on Friday.

The source said the attack hit “a site in the Damascus countryside” but did not provide further details.

There was no immediate statement from Israel, which usually declines to comment on reports of attacks in Syria.

Israel has for years been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that began in 2011.

Israel says such operations are aimed at preventing Iranian weapons from reaching armed groups in Syria that are backed by Tehran.

There have been at least six attacks in March alone, according to a tally by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor with sources on the ground.

Two soldiers were wounded in an Israeli missile attack near Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state media reported.

Nearly half a million people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, and about half of the country’s pre-war population has been forced from their homes.