According to a Bloomberg report this weekend, the Israeli strike against the IRGC compound adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus destroyed the terrorist group’s entire chain of command in Syria and Lebanon, giving rise to suspicions in Tehran that someone in President Assad’s regime was feeding accurate information to the Israelis.
A Syrian defector critical of the Assad regime claims to have conversed with an Iranian official who shared Iran’s concerns regarding the deaths of 18 of its generals in rapid succession in strikes attributed to Israel.
The defector further stated that Tehran’s suspicions grew due to the connection between the Hezbollah members slain in Syria and the Syrian security services. Additionally, the elimination of these individuals seemed feasible only through the utilization of sophisticated espionage technologies.
According to the Financial Times, all 18 Quds Force commanders were killed in Syria – 16 in Damascus, one in the coastal city of Baniyas, and one in Deir ez-Zor in Syria’s northeast.
As per Bloomberg’s report, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Rahimi, along with the other 14 slain officers, were confident that the compound adjacent to the embassy was deemed “the safest” in Damascus, believing Israel wouldn’t risk attacking that location.
Before the airstrike on the IRCG compound in Damascus, plans were underway to relocate the residences of the ambassador and the consul to a new apartment complex further down the same street, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s two brothers resided. However, just before the attack, the senior-ranking IRCG officials in Syria met on the second floor of the compound and decided to stay.
Much carnage and detritus ensued.
An independent investigation determined that the security breaches leading to the assassination enjoyed high-level political and security protection, making it improbable that President Assad was unaware of them.
On Sunday, Mehr reported that Deputy Chief of the Iranian Army for Coordination Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari “warned the enemies that any cowardly move, act of aggression, violation of the Iranian boundaries, or crossing the Islamic Republic establishment’s red lines will draw a decisive and harsh response from the Army and the IRGC in such a way that the adversaries will regret taking hostile actions.”
Makes sense.
