One dead after explosion goes off near Iranian embassy in Damascus - report

An explosion was heard in the al-Maza neighborhood of Damascus, Israeli media reported Saturday, citing Syrian reports. Al-Maza is home to the Iranian embassy.

At least one person was killed, a man whose identity has yet to be disclosed but is considered to be someone “close to Iran.”

Syrian media has yet to determine who it suspects is responsible for the incident.

Attack last month

Notably, this Iranian embassy in al-Maza is the very same one that was attacked last month in a hit that was attributed to Israel. Senior members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including the commander of the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria, were killed in that attack. Mohammed Reza Zahedi, the head of IRGC for Lebanon and Syria was assassinated in that airstrike in April, along with his lieutenant and approximately five other officers, the IRGC claimed that night.

Iran then launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel directly for the first time, claiming retaliation for the alleged Israeli assault on the embassy.

Israel, according to foreign reports, responded with a targeted attack on Isfahan.

Zahedi was the highest-ranking Iranian killed since the current war started, and even more so than Sayyed Reza Mousavi, another senior IRGC officer who was supposedly killed by an Israeli airstrike in Syria in December, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Shortly before Zahedi’s assassination alongside his deputy, the residences for the Iranian ambassador and consuls were supposed to be moved to a new apartment complex, further down the same street, where the two brothers of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, also live.

Shortly before the attack, the senior echelon of the Syrian Revolutionary Guards met on the second floor of the consul building and decided to stay there, in a last-minute decision.

Yonah Jeremy Bob and Reuters contributed to this report.