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  • Iran vows revenge as it accuses Israel of deadly airstrike on Syria consulate in deepening Middle East crisis

    Iran has vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria on Monday, in a deadly escalation of regional tensions over the war in Gaza that once again appeared to raise the risk of a wider Middle Eastern conflict. The airstrike destroyed the consulate building in the capital Damascus, killing at least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry. At least six Syrian citizens were also killed, Iranian state television reported on Tuesday.

  • Fears Grow That Syria Strike Could Spur Retaliatory Attacks on Israel and U.S.

    “The strike yesterday is a significant escalation and risks tipping an already volatile, unstable region into full-scale war,” said Dana Stroul, formerly the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is the Israeli version of the U.S. strike on Qassim Suleimani,” she said, referring to the former longtime leader of the Quds Force, who was killed by an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport in 2020. Image

  • Saudi Arabia condemns targeting of Iranian consulate in Syria

    Saudi Arabia has condemned the targeting of the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital Damascus, a foreign ministry statement said early Tuesday. On Monday, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s consulate in Syria, a marked escalation in a war pitting Israel against its regional adversaries, and Tehran said the strike killed seven military advisers including three senior commanders.

  • Iran says Israel bombs its embassy in Syria, kills commanders

    Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Syria on Monday in a strike that Iran said killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.
    Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main Iranian embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole by the debris.

  • Israel strikes Syria hard as its pilots resume regular drills for northern war

     Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria's Aleppo province early on Friday, stepping up its campaign against Iran's proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza.
    Israel has ramped up airstrikes Syria against both the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) since the Iranian-backed Palestinian faction Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and in recent days its pilots have resumed regular practice for "deep" raids into Lebanon.

  • From Gaza to the Syrian Border, Jordan Is Increasingly in the Line of Fire

    UNRWA in Jordan provides key services to more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees in the kingdom. This includes services in ten refugee camps, in 169 schools serving 119,000 students, and in 25 medical clinics and other health centers. Jordanian officials therefore have urged the United States and other countries to reverse their funding freezes, especially now in the heat of the ongoing war in Gaza and the broader regional crises.

  • UN says 16.7m Syrians need humanitarian aid

    He pointed out that the earthquake in Turkiye was one of the most severe earthquakes the world has seen in a century, noting that the disaster claimed the lives of thousands of people in both Turkiye and Syria. However, he pointed out that the impact of the earthquake was much greater in Syria due to the ongoing civil war, emphasising the need to rebuild basic services and shelters.

  • Opinion: Here’s what an uncoordinated US withdrawal from Syria would look like. It’s bad for many partners, but especially Turkey.

    Reports have surfaced regarding the possibility of the United States withdrawing from Syria completely. Despite officials rejecting these reports and a recent vote in the US Senate exhibiting reluctance among lawmakers to leave Syria, news of a potential US exit has been closely monitored by regional actors. Turkey is among them. While Ankara may favor a future US withdrawal from Syria, it desires US coordination. An uncoordinated withdrawal by the United States could pose significant risks for Turkey, leaving the country alone against Iran and Russia.

  • US launches series of airstrikes in Iraq, Syria

    The U.S. military hit dozens of targets across Iraq and Syria on Friday and dozens more in Yemen on Saturday, targeting Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias. The strikes in Iraq and Syria were a direct reaction to an explosive drone attack Sunday that killed three American soldiers and wounded more than 40 others at a remote base in Jordan. Those targets included facilities for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, as well as infrastructure for Iran-backed militias that operate collectively as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

  • Israel says it has struck more than 50 Hezbollah targets in Syria since Oct 7

    The Israeli military said on Saturday that since the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7 it had struck more than 50 targets in Syria linked to the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah. The remarks, in a briefing by chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari that mainly discussed efforts to beat back Hezbollah attacks launched in solidarity with Hamas, were a departure from Israel's usual reticence about Syria operations. "Everywhere Hezbollah is, we shall be. We will take action everywhere required in the Middle East," Hagari said.