Iranian media stories say IRGC member Reza Zarei was killed in a suspected Israeli assault within the port metropolis of Baniyas.
A member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and two different folks have been killed in a suspected Israeli assault, Iran’s state information company IRNA reported.
IRNA stated Reza Zarei, a member of the IRGC, had been “killed at daybreak at present by the usurping Zionist regime” within the port metropolis of Baniyas.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights conflict monitor corroborated Friday’s assault.
It stated three explosions shook the centre of Baniyas, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, through the daybreak strike on a villa that sheltered “a gaggle affiliated with Iran”.
A constructing was destroyed, killing an Iranian and two different non-Syrians who had been with him, stated the Britain-based Observatory, which depends on a community of sources inside Syria.
There have been separate stories that a number of others had been additionally injured within the assault.
There was no remark from Israel after the strike, however its air drive has repeatedly bombed targets in Syria.
On Thursday, Israel killed a Hezbollah member in a strike on Syria, near the Lebanese border, the Observatory stated, hours after comparable assaults.
“Yet one more focused assassination in Syria, yet one more member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria,” stated Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut in Lebanon on Friday.
“Iranian media is blaming Israel. Israel normally doesn’t touch upon particular person strikes however it has acknowledged finishing up a whole bunch of strikes in opposition to Iranian targets and Iranian-linked targets in recent times.
“However in current weeks, what we’ve got seen is extra frequent assaults, comparable assaults. Again in December, for instance, one of many prime commanders of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria was assassinated in Damascus.”
Israel has been finishing up raids for years because it doesn’t need Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria, in line with Khodr. However since Israel’s conflict on Gaza started on October 7, its technique has modified.
“It’s now going after high-value targets,” our correspondent stated.
“Reza Zarei, the person who was killed in Baniyas, was answerable for Iranian oil shipments to Syria. Based on analysts, Israel is focusing on these high-value targets to chop the hyperlink between the command in Tehran and native actors in Syria affiliated to Iran,” she added.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have scaled again deployment of their senior officers in Syria on account of a spate of lethal Israeli assaults and had been relying extra on allied militias to protect their sway there, the Reuters information company reported in February.