WW3 DRUMS: Here is what sparked Israel, Iran current conflict
Until last night, Iran had long been warning that it would launch an attack on Israel in retaliation to a strike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria’s capital, Damascus, earlier this month. As a reminder, here’s how that attack unfolded which led to Iran’s last night response by attacking Israel soil:
- Syria’s defence ministry said Israeli aircraft targeted the Iranian consulate building, which was on a highway in the western Mezzeh district of Damascus, from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights
- Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles they launched, but others made it through and “destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside”, the ministry added
- The strike killed seven of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, including top commanders Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi
- Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the attack, saying it does not not comment on foreign media reports
- However, Israel has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran and allied armed groups which are armed, funded and trained by the Revolutionary Guards
- Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Syria
- Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said he strongly condemned what he called “this heinous terrorist attack”, adding that it had killed “a number of innocent people”