An Israeli airstrike on Damascus killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’s (IRGC) spy chief for Syria on Saturday, according to reports in the Iranian media.

Two high-ranking Iranian advisers were martyred in today’s attack by the Zionist regime (Israel) in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus,” Iran’s Mehr news agency said.

According to Syrian news agency SANA, the attack targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of south-west Damascus. The area has a military airport, the UN headquarters, and various embassies and restaurants.

The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes killed at least 10 people, including the revolutionary guards’ chief and three other guard members.

“An Israeli missile strike targeted a four-storey building, killing five people… and destroying the whole building where Iran-aligned leaders were meeting,” the observatory said.

Meanwhile Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi warned that the attack will not “go unanswered.” In a statement broadcast on national media, he said that the killing was “a terrorist move” through “a flagrant violation of Syrian airspace and that Israel’s attacks “will not remain unanswered by Iran.”

“The Islamic Republic will not leave the Zionist regime’s crimes unanswered,” Iran’s President Raisi said.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the country’s most powerful military and security organization, has been stationed in Syria since 2011, the year the Syrian war began. The revolutionary guards work with Syrian President Bashar al Assad as he continues to wage a bloody war on the country’s population.

Israel has been launching airstrikes on Syria ever since its civil war began, mostly targeting the Iranian forces. The attacks have only intensified after the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.