Iran says Israel strike kills Guards' Syria intel chief, 3 others

TEHRAN — An Israeli strike on Damascus killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' intelligence chief for Syria and his deputy as well as two other Guards members on Saturday, Iranian media reported.

"The Revolutionary Guards' Syria intel chief, his deputy and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel," Iran's Mehr news agency said, quoting an informed but unnamed source.

In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed four of its members were killed in the strike on the Syrian capital and accused Israel of being behind the attack.

The official Syrian news agency SANA said a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus was targeted in what it called "an Israeli aggression".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Israeli strike had targeted a neighbourhood sheltering leaders of the Guards, as well as pro-Iranian Palestinian factions.

The Israeli raid comes four days after the Revolutionary Guard said it attacked "an Israeli intelligence headquarters" in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern province of Kurdistan.

Iraqi authorities said the attack killed four civilians and wounded six others.