Israel Air Strike On Iran Embassy, Death Toll Rises To 11

Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Syria on Monday in a strike that Iran said killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries. Meanwhile the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the death toll from an air strike on an Iranian embassy annex building in Damascus -- widely blamed on Israel -- had risen to 11 on Monday.

"The death toll from the Israeli strikes on the Iranian embassy annex has risen to 11: eight Iranians, two Syrians and one Lebanese -- all of them fighters, none of them civilians," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the British-based Observatory, told AFP.

The observeratory had previously said there were eight dead.

Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main Iranian embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole by the debris.

"We strongly condemn this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents," said Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad who was seen at the site along with Syria's interior minister.

Iran's ambassador to Syria said the strike hit a consular building in the embassy compound and that his residence was on the top two floors.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that seven Iranian military advisers died in the strike including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in its Quds Force, which is an elite foreign espionage and paramilitary arm.

Israel has long targeted Iran's military installations in Syria and those of its proxies, but Monday's attack was the first time Israel hit the vast embassy compound itself.

It has ramped up those strikes in parallel with its campaign against Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, which ignited the Gaza war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 253 hostage, according to Israeli tallies._Reuters, Barrons