Israeli strike in Damascus targets Iran-aligned paramilitary officials

An Israeli attack on the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday destroyed a residential building where Iran-aligned paramilitary leaders were meeting.

Precision-targeted Israeli missiles destroyed a multi-story building in the western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh, Reuters reported. The structure was occupied by Iranian advisers assisting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's administration, according to the report.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based non-profit, said at least five people were killed in the missile attack.

An official of an Iran-aligned group in the region told the Associated Press that the building was used by officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and claimed that 10 people were either killed or wounded in the attack.

The lastest Israeli attack signifies yet another escalation of already heightened tensions in the region.

Israel has intensified its airstrikes against Palestinian targets, Lebanese operatives and Iran-linked targets in Syria following the October 7 attacks by Hamas. On December 25, an Israeli airstrike in Damascus killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi, a veteran of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria.

In recent weeks, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have increased as a result of rockets fired from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.