While reports in the Arab media claimed an Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike in Syria on Sunday night took out a top Iranian general, the Revolutionary Guards “reject[ed] rumors about [his] martyrdom.”
By United with Israel Staff and TPS
Following reports that Israeli fighter jets struck positions in Syria on Sunday, Arab media disseminated information regarding the assassination of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in the strikes.
According to the Amman-based Al Hadath newspaper and other Arab media sources, Brigadier General Hajj Amir Ali (Hajizadeh) was eliminated on Sunday evening in strikes near Damascus, the Jewish Press reporteed.
By Tuesday , a spokesman for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), General Ramezan Sharif, issued a statement “dismiss[ing] as a lie recent rumors that Commander of IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh has been martyred in an Israeli missile attack on Syria,” reported Iran’s AhlulBayt News Agency.
In March, Hajizadeh oversaw an unprecedented drill in Iran entitled “Towards Jerusalem” showcasing supposedly locally-made attack drones capable of striking targets up to 1,000 kilometers from the Islamic Republic, which would place the Jewish state within their range.
The IAF in August struck Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite militia targets in the town of Aqraba, situated southeast of Damascus.
The Iranian-led forces were planning to launch armed drones at Israeli targets in the coming days, the IDF said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has assets inside Syria, recorded at least three explosions that rocked the areas around Damascus on Sunday night.
The missiles, “believed to be Israeli,” hit Syrian military sites and those of Iranian militias.
The SOHR further said that the strike killed at least three people “of non-Syrian nationality, as they are likely to be of Iranian nationality.”
No additional verifiable details were available.
Some reports indicate that weapons-storage sites were hit, including those housing Iranian drones and missiles.
The IAF has carried out thousands of attacks to thwart Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country, including more than 17 recorded Israeli attacks in 2019, the latest of which occurred on November 20 when several Israeli missiles hit sites on the southern and southwestern outskirts of Damascus.
Strikes against targets in Syria reportedly carried out by Israel are usually meant to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon or to thwart Iran’s military buildup in the country, and especially on Syria’s border with Israel.
Iran uses its positions in Syria to transfer weapons and infrastructure to its terror proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, while attempting to establish another military front against Israel from the Syrian Golan Heights.
Iran’s military buildup in Syria remains a red line for Israel.
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