Iranian media names second IRGC casualty of March 31 strike attributed to Israel near Damascus.
By JNS
Five Syrian soldiers were wounded on Sunday in Israeli air strikes in Homs province, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.
The strikes, which according to the Syrian Defense Ministry occurred just after midnight, targeted the T-4 Airbase, located west of Palmyra, and al-Dabaa Airport, near al-Qusayr city close to the Lebanese border, according to Reuters, which cited Western intelligence sources.
Also on Sunday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that a second Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member, identified as Meqdad Meqdani, had died of wounds sustained in a March 31 airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus also attributed to Israel.
Citing a military source, Syria’s official Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Friday that “bursts of missiles” had been launched from the direction of the Golan Heights shortly after midnight.
The IRGC said in a statement the same day that Milad Heidari, an IRGC military adviser, had been killed in the attack, according to Mehr.
According to U.K.-based war monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, four other IRGC officers were also killed in Friday’s strike, which according to SOHR targeted a weapons depot used by Syrian government forces and Iran-backed militias.
The strikes on Sunday and Friday followed another attack near Damascus on March 30, in which two Syrian soldiers were wounded, according to SANA.
According to SOHR, the Homs strikes were the ninth Israeli attack in Syria this year and the third in recent days.
The Israeli Defense Forces did not comment on any of the incidents, in keeping with its standard policy.
According to unattributed reports in Israeli media, there is speculation that the recent attacks on Iranian targets in Syria are connected to a roadside bomb planted by a suspected Hezbollah operative on Route 65 highway near the Megiddo Junction on March 13. The terrorist infiltrated the country from Lebanon using a ladder to climb over the border fence.
Equipped with a suicide vest and a rifle, the terrorist was subsequently killed by security personnel after being stopped at a checkpoint near the village of Ya’ara.
An Israeli Arab man who was seriously wounded in the attack is still recovering in the hospital.