Israeli strike kills 5 Iran army advisers in Syria
Damascus/Beirut, January 20
An Israeli missile strike on Syria’s capital Damascus on Saturday killed five members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, including the head of the force’s information unit, a security source in the regional pro-Syria alliance said. In Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards named five military advisers who were killed in the Israeli strike, but did not give their rank. Iranian state television said the targeted building was the residence of Iranian advisers in the Syrian capital. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi vowed to punish Israel.
Tehran places Soraya satellite into orbit
- Iran said it had conducted a successful satellite launch into its highest orbit yet, the latest for a programme the West fears improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles.
- The Soraya satellite was placed into an orbit at some 750 km above the Earth’s surface. Officials did not immediately acknowledge what the satellite did.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said, “Iran…reserves right to respond to the organised terrorism of the fake Zionist regime at the appropriate time and place.” There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has long pursued a bombing campaign against Iran’s military and security presence in Syria.
Syrian state media said the country’s air defences had shot down a number of missiles. 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 supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed Palestinian faction present in Syria and Lebanon, condemned the strikes.
Meanwhile, Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip while its planes dropped leaflets on the southern area of Rafah urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate hostages held by Hamas, residents said. Palestinian fighters battled tanks trying to push back into the eastern suburbs of the Jabalia area in northern Gaza, where Israel had started pulling out troops and shifting to small-scale operations, residents and militants said. The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 165 people and wounded 280 others in 24 hours.
At the same time, relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza protested outside the house of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing frustration over his government’s seeming lack of progress in getting the more than 100 captives released as the war in Gaza drags on. A group representing families of the hostages said they had “begged for 105 days” and now demanded the government show leadership and take bold steps to free the hostages. — Agencies
