Iran’s response to an airstrike on its Syrian consulate – which reportedly killed a senior military commander – will be “harsh”, the country’s ambassador has warned.

According to Iranian state media, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in the explosion, which destroyed the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Tehran’s ambassador to Damascus, Hossein Akbari, who was not injured, claimed between five and seven people had been killed in the strike.

He promised the Iranian response would be “harsh”.

Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad also told media after meeting Iran’s ambassador that “several” people were killed, without offering further information.

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Image:
Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria. Pic: AP

Image:
Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria. Pic: AP

A Lebanese security source who spoke to Reuters and Iran’s Tasnim news agency claimed the explosion was an Israeli airstrike.

Israel declined to comment on the incident, while The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad walks with Iran's ambassador in Damascus Hossein Akbari, near a damaged site after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria April 1, 2024. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Image:
Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad walks with Iran’s ambassador in Damascus Hossein Akbari following the strike. Pic: Reuters

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The death of Mr Zahedi and the destruction of the Iranian consulate is likely to further inflame tensions in the Middle East.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, called the strike “a breach of all international conventions”.

A spokesperson for the ministry told Iranian state TV that Tehran would decide on the type of “response and punishment against the aggressor”.

Who is Mohammad Reza Zahedi?

A top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGS), Mr Zahedi was a leading figure in its elite Quds Force – a unit specialising in military intelligence and unconventional warfare.

He was a mid-ranking commander during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and joined IRGC two years after the revolution of 1979

Having previously served as a commander in the Revolutionary Guard’s ground forces, he served as the head of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon until 2017.

He is the most senior leader of the IRGS to be killed since the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.