Iranian media studies 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 mentioned Reza Zarei, a member of the IRGC, had been “killed at daybreak at the moment by the usurping Zionist regime” within the port metropolis of Baniyas.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights conflict monitor corroborated Friday’s assault.
It mentioned three explosions shook the centre of Baniyas, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, throughout the daybreak strike on a villa that sheltered “a bunch affiliated with Iran”.
A constructing was destroyed, killing an Iranian and two different non-Syrians who had been with him, mentioned the Britain-based Observatory, which depends on a community of sources inside Syria.
There have been separate studies 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 mentioned, hours after comparable assaults.
“One more focused assassination in Syria, one more member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria,” mentioned 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 towards Iranian targets and Iranian-linked targets in recent times.
“However in current weeks, what we now have 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, based on 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 mentioned.
“Reza Zarei, the person who was killed in Baniyas, was in control of Iranian oil shipments to Syria. In response to analysts, Israel is concentrating 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 resulting from 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.