Air Delivered event in Damascus, Mazzeh area, Syrian Arab Republic on Sat 20th January 2024

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says five of its “military advisers” have been killed in an Israeli air raid on a residential building in Syria’s capital, Damascus.

Syrian state media SANA said the attack on Saturday took place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood. It said “Israeli aggression” targeted the building.

Iran also blamed Israel for the attack, saying it “reserves the right to respond”.

“The Islamic Republic will not leave the Zionist regime’s crimes unanswered,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said in a statement broadcast on state media.

Earlier, the foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Tehran would respond “at the appropriate time and place”, and condemned “an escalation in aggressive and provocative attacks” by Israel.

A well-informed source told Al Jazeera the target was an IRGC intelligence unit, adding that a senior IRGC intelligence official in Syria and his assistants were in the building.

In a statement immediately after the attack, the IRGC said an air raid by Israeli fighter jets killed “a number of Syrian forces and four military advisers”. It identified the people killed as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saied Karimi, without sharing their ranks.

Later in the day, IRGC said a fifth member of the elite force also died after succumbing to his wounds, naming him as Mohammad Amin Samadi, Iranian state media reported.

The attack, which is believed to have been carried out with at least four missiles, completely destroyed a four-storey building, according to Iranian state media.

Israel has yet to comment.