IRGC top commanders attending a speech by Ali Khamenei
Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) vowed to avenge the death of two of its officers in an Israeli air strike in Syria, a statement issued on state media said.
An Israeli attack on the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday killed two civilians and left some material damage, Syrian state media had reported citing a military source.
The IRGC statement Tuesday evening local time said Col. Ehsan Karbalaipur and Morteza Saeednejad “were martyred” on the outskirts of Damascus by an Israeli missile attack. “Without a doubt the Zionist regime will pay for this crime,” the IRGC said.
Iran has been deeply involved in the Syrian civil war for more than a decade, deploying tens of thousands of its own forces as well as hired Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani Shiite fighters, who helped save Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with help by Russia.
However, since 2017 Iran has been trying to set up a presence on the Israeli border possibly to create a new front to compliment what the Lebanese Hezbollah has in southern Lebanon against Israel.
The Israeli air force has conducted hundreds of strikes against Iranian bases in Syria since 2017, targeting mostly weapons transfers and warehouses.