TEHRAN, Apr 06 (AFP/Reuters): Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country's enemies will "regret" the killings.
Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday's air strike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel, which has not commented.
The attack levelled the Iranian embassy's consular annex in Damascus, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) members including two generals.
Iran's response "will be carried out at the right time, with the necessary precision and planning, and with maximum damage to the enemy so that they regret their action," chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri said on Saturday.
He was speaking at a ceremony in the central city of Isfahan to commemorate Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the two dead brigadier generals from the Quds Force, the IRGC's foreign operations arm.
Zahedi, 63, was Quds Force commander for the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Lebanon, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He had held several commands during a career spanning more than 40 years, and was the most senior Iranian soldier killed since a United States missile strike at Baghdad airport in 2020 killed Quds Force chief General Qasem Soleimani.
On Saturday, crowds at the gathering in Isfahan chanted "Down with Israel!" and "Down with the United States!"
The Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Israel "will be punished" for the killings.
Monday's strike in Damascus took place against the backdrop of the Gaza war which began with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians.
Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the attack which sparked massive Israeli retaliation against the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-run health ministry in the Palestinian territory said Friday at least 33,091 people have been killed there during nearly six months of war.Monday's attack in Damascus, which the Observatory said killed 16 people, was the fifth raid on Syria in a week blamed on Israel.
Tehran does not recognise Israel, and the two countries have fought a shadow war for years.
Senior ISIS member,
others arrested
Iranian police on Saturday announced the arrest of a senior operative of Islamic State with two other members of the group accused of planning a suicide attack during next week's celebrations marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The police said Mohammad Zaker, known as "Ramesh", and the other two were arrested in Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, following clashes, according to Iranian media. Eight others accompanying the men were also detained, they said.
Islamic State, which harbours a virulent hatred for Iran's dominant Shi'ite sect, claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran in January that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a memorial marking the fourth anniversary of the assassination of top commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone.
Iran arrested 35 people in January, including a commander of Islamic State's Afghanistan-based branch ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), who it said were linked to the twin bombings on Jan 3 in the southeastern city of Kerman.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
