BAGHDAD: At least a dozen missiles were fired on Saturday at a military base used by US-led coalition forces in western Iraq, a US defense source and an Iraqi police official told AFP.
A military base housing US-led coalition forces in western Iraq, Al-Asad airbase in Anbar province, was targeted on Saturday. The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that initial assessments suggested minor injuries among US personnel and a serious injury to a member of Iraq’s security forces.
Earlier, Iran blamed Israel for a deadly strike on Damascus, saying it “reserves the right to respond” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed four of its members had died. The strike, which targeted the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus, resulted in the death of 10 persons, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The IRGC confirmed the loss of four members and declared Iran’s “right to respond” at an appropriate time and place.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani condemned what he described as “frequent violations of Syria’s sovereignty” by Israel and an escalation in aggressive actions. Kanani asserted that Iran reserves the right to respond and accused Israel of attempting to spread instability and insecurity in the region.
Israeli Missile Strike on Damascus
The strike also killed four military advisers, one of whom was identified as the Revolutionary Guard’s spy chief for Syria, as reported by Iran’s Mehr news agency.
Tensions have been escalating in the region, with Israel facing accusations of intensified strikes on senior Iranian and resistance groups in Syria and Lebanon, supporters of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas. There are growing concerns that the conflict in Gaza could further expand throughout the region.
Iran claimed that Israeli military actions showed the “weakness and desperation” of its forces on the battlefield. This latest incident occurred just four days after the Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for an attack on what they referred to as “an Israeli intelligence headquarters” in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern autonomous province of Kurdistan. The Iraqi authorities reported that the attack resulted in the death of four civilians and injured six others.
Brigadier General Sadegh Omidzadeh, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) Quds Force, was reported killed as a result of an Israeli attack on Syria’s capital, Damascus, Trend reports. According to Trend, the information was confirmed by a source from the pro-IRGC social network.
The Israeli attack, reportedly carried out by fighter jets on the morning of January 20, resulted in the death of several IRGC members, including General Omidzadeh.
An Israeli airstrike on Damascus destroyed a building Saturday, official media outlets reported without giving details on casualties.
State-TV stated that the “Israeli aggression” targeted a residential compound in the western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh. The neighborhood is home to various diplomatic missions, including the Iranian and Lebanese embassies.
