According to Iranian reports, several members of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have been killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on a building in Syria's capital Damascus. According to media reports, the head of the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence service for Syria and his deputy are among the dead.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that at least ten people were killed in the airstrike, including three IRGC leaders and a civilian of Syrian nationality, in addition to four missing people whose identities are unknown.

The 4-storey building in the Al-Mazah Villat neighbourhood that was attacked was completely destroyed. According to SOHR, a meeting of officials loyal to Iran was taking place at the building at the time of the attack. The neighborhood to the west of the capital Damascus is known as a high-security zone, where, among other things, UN buildings, embassies and restaurants are located. The Israeli military did not initially comment on the attack.

Israel's air force has been repeatedly bombing targets in neighbouring Syria for years. Since the beginning of the Gaza war in October, Israeli attacks in Syria have increased. They are mostly aimed at militias with links to Iran. At the end of December, Iranian General Sejed-Rasi Mussawi, a senior member of the IRGC, was killed in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus in a suspected Israeli airstrike. The Revolutionary Guard is Iran's elite unit and is considered far more powerful than the regular troops. Its commander-in-chief is Head of State Ali Khamenei.

At the beginning of the week, Iran's Revolutionary Guard attacked the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) with missiles in retaliation for Israeli attacks on its members. In addition to a building in Hewlêr (Erbil) described by Tehran as a "spy centre" of the Israeli secret service Mossad, the Iranian missiles also fell in residential areas. Several missiles hit the house of Kurdish investment entrepreneur Pêşrew Dizayî (CEO of Empire World). He, his eleven-month-old daughter Jina, a Filipino domestic worker and a guest travelling from Dubai, who was a native Iraqi from Baghdad, were killed. Six other people were injured in the attacks on Hewlêr, including Dizayî's wife.