Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi blamed Israel on Saturday for an airstrike that killed five senior members of his nation's security forces and warned of retaliation. Syrian civilians also died in the attack on Damascus, with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that 10 people in all were killed, the BBC reports. The strike adds to tensions in the region intensifying since the Israel-Hamas war began, even as nations including the US make diplomatic efforts to keep the fighting from spreading, per the New York Times. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave the crimes of the Zionist regime unanswered," Raisi said, according to state media.
Israel's military, which has struck Syrian targets linked to Iran for years, did not comment on the one Saturday. Leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, including an intelligence chief and his deputy, were among those killed, an Israeli defense official and Syrian media reported. Other military operations in the region on Saturday included:
- American casualties: At least two US troops at an airbase in Iraq were injured by rocket or missile fire that American officials said came from militias backed by Iran. The Pentagon had said Thursday that US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under attack 140 times since the war began Oct. 7, per the Times. The US forces are there to combat the Islamic State.
- Strikes on Houthis: The US military said its airstrike took out a Houthi anti-ship missile in Yemen that had been prepared to launch toward the Gulf of Aden. "US forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region," Central Command said in a statement. It was the seventh US attack 11 days.
(More
Israel-Hamas war stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
