Iran admits 2 IRGC members killed by Israel strike in Syria

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced yesterday evening that two of its members were killed in an Israeli bomb strike near the Syrian capital, Damascus, at dawn on Monday. It threatened Tel Aviv with revenge, saying it would pay the price for its crime.

Given the uncommon Iranian admission, the Israeli side senses Iran’s determination to respond to the killing of the two Revolutionary Guards, according to what the military correspondent for the Walla website, Amir Bohbot, said.

The Israeli army raised the state of alert of the units operating the Iron Dome air defence systems, along the border with Syria, according to Bohbot.

He stated that the Israeli army was preparing for the possibility of Iran launching a missile attack from Syria on Israeli sites.

The last time that Iran admitted the casualties of its forces in an Israeli attack on sites in Syria, was in April 2018, when seven members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed in an attack on T4 Airport, east of Homs.

At that time, Iran responded a month later with a barrage of missiles fired by pro-Iranian armed militias in Syria, at Israeli sites.

Farsnews agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, named the two IRGC members as Ehsan Karbalaipour and Morteza Saidnejad.

READ: Russia strengthens its influence in Syria following Israel strikes

On Tuesday evening, Iran’s state-run Press TV said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards vowed to avenge the killing of two of its members.

The Revolutionary Guards statement, posted on its official website said, “following the crime committed by the Zionist entity yesterday morning during a rocket attack on the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, two of the heroic Revolutionary Guard members were martyred (…) they are Colonel Ehsan Karbalaipour and Colonel Morteza Saidnejad,” warning that “the Zionist entity will pay the price for this crime.”

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria over the past years, targeting army sites and Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah targets.

Since the beginning of this year, Israel has carried out seven air strikes in Syria, including strikes that led to the killing of two soldiers and four fighters loyal to Iran on 24 February, while Syria’s official news agency SANA announced the killing of three soldiers.

Israel rarely confirms the implementation of strikes in Syria, but it reiterates that it will continue to confront what it describes as Iran’s attempts to establish its presence and strengthen its military position in Syria.