Israel strikes Iran's embassy in Damascus

Israel has struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus, state media reported, and an NGO said 8 people were killed in the unprecedented attack.

"The Israeli strikes targeted a building in the Mazeh district of Damascus," an area where the embassy and UN buildings are located, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

It added that "air defence systems have attacked enemy targets in the vicinity" of the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed in the attack.

In Tehran, Iranian state media confirmed that an Israeli strike had destroyed an annex of the Iranian embassy in Syria.

Iran's Nour news agency reported that "Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not injured in the Israeli attack."

An AFP correspondent on the scene confirmed that the embassy annex was completely destroyed by the strike.

Reuters sources said Mohammad Reza Zahedi, leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, died in the strike.

"Israeli missiles destroyed the annex to the Iranian embassy building in Damascus, " the Britain-based NGO, which has an extensive network of sources in the country, reported.

Photos show the completely destroyed building turned into rubble. Not far from the scene, dozens of men have gathered across the street. An ambulance is on the scene. The strike was in the immediate vicinity of the Canadian embassy in Damascus

Iranian state media confirmed that an Israeli strike destroyed an annex to the Iranian embassy in Syria. / BGNES