People and security forces gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus on January 20, 2024.
People and security forces gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus on January 20, 2024. Image Credit: AFP

BEIRUT/DAMASCUS: An Israeli missile strike on Syria's capital Damascus on Saturday killed four members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including the head of the force's information unit in Syria, a security source in the regional pro-Syria alliance told Reuters.

Israel has long pursued a bombing campaign against Iran-linked targets in Syria. But it has shifted to deadlier strikes in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by militants of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from Gaza.

Syrian state media said a building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus was targeted in a likely Israeli attack, without giving further details.

Other local media in Syria said explosions were heard across the Syrian capital.

The security source, part of a network of groups close to Syria's government and its major ally Iran, said the multi-storey building was used by Iranian advisers, and that it was entirely flattened by "precision-targeted Israeli missiles".

Iran's state-run Press TV said two Iranian Guards military advisers were killed in the Israeli strike on Damascus.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Essam Al Amin, head of the Al Mowasat Hospital in Damascus, told Reuters that his hospital had received one corpse and three wounded people, including a woman, following Saturday's attack.