A Senior Iranian official has warned that Israel’s missile attack on the Syrian T-4 airbase “will not remain without response,” Lebanon’s al-Mayaden television channel reported Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, was summoned to the foreign ministry in Moscow in the wake of the attack, in which 14 people . Iran’s Tasnim news agency updated Tuesday that 7 Iranians were among the dead and their bodies had been brought to Tehran for burial. According to a JewishPress.com report, as many as 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards may have been killed in the attack.
Russia blamed Israel for the attack overnight between Sunday and Monday, saying that two Israeli Air Force jets F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles from Lebanese airspace at the T-4 airfield between Homs and Palmyra some 250 kilometers from Damascus.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the strike on the base a “very dangerous development.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi called the strike a “blatant violation of international law which would strengthen terrorists.”
“The Israeli regime’s aggression against Syria is a breach of that country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and contradicts all international regulations and principles,” Qassemi added.
Israeli officials have remained silent, neither claiming nor denying responsibility for the attack. However, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a cryptic reference to the incident on Monday when he said, “We have one clear and simple rule and we seek to express it constantly: If someone tries to attack you – rise up and attack him.”