Iran Vows Revenge After Missile Strike Kills Two Generals

(NationRise.com) – The Iranian regime has vowed to respond to a missile strike attributed to Israel that destroyed the nation’s consulate in Syria’s capital, Damascus, killing two Iranian generals and 11 officials. According to Iran’s main state TV, the nation’s Supreme National Security Council had a meeting with each of its members deciding that the country needed to respond to the strike. The report added that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attended the meeting.

Raisi said on the Iranian presidency office’s website that the “cowardly crime won’t go unanswered.” The news agency added that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, directly accused the Israeli government of the attack and claimed that the Jewish state “will be punished.” The two generals who died in the strike in Damascus were Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi and Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was the chief of the elite Quds Forces in Syria and Lebanon until 2016.

Some reports said that in addition to the two generals, those who died in the missile attack were six Syrian and five Iranian citizens. Over the last few years, the Israeli military has been targeting Iranian military officials who support terrorist groups fighting the Jewish state in Gaza and along its border with Lebanon. Political analysts said that the recent strike in the Syrian capital represented a massive escalation because it hit a diplomatic mission from Iran. However, some added that it remains unclear if the Iranian regime would respond militarily by itself or through some of its proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, as it would risk a confrontation with the United States and Israel.

Iran’s news agency IRNA reported that the Iranian regime told the United States through a Swiss envoy in Iran that it called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council as soon as it received the news of the attack. According to an Axios report, the United States told Iran that it had “no involvement” in the strike in Damascus.