An Israeli air strike has killed Saeed Ali Dadi, a senior adviser in Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) south of Damascus, according to several Iranian media outlets.
IRGC Advisors are responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran, an important part of Iran’s regional network of allies and proxies known as the “Axis of Resistance.”
The Syrian defense ministry reported on Friday that Israel fired missiles from the Golan Heights and hit areas south of Damascus and that the air defenses shot down some of them.
In addition, It was also reported that the Revolutionary Guard expressed its concerns to the Syrian regime that “the leaking of information from within the Syrian security forces played a role in the recent deadly strikes.”
Israel has been conducting frequent attacks on Iranian and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Syria, killing many top commanders, including Razi Musawi, who was killed in the Sayyida Zainab area, and the IRGC’s intelligence head in Syria, Sadegh Omidzadeh, who was killed in the Mezzeh Villas area in the west.
It was earlier reported that, Iran has pulled senior officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps out of Syria amid a series of Israeli airstrikes that have killed at least six military “advisers” since December.
One attack on Jan. 20 killed five Guards, including a general who ran intelligence for the Quds Force, which is responsible for overseas operations. The strike flattened a building in Damascus.
Another strike outside Damascus on Dec. 25, killed a senior Guards adviser responsible for coordinating between Syria and Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers at his funeral.
A senior regional security official briefed by Tehran said top Iranian commanders had left Syria along with dozens of mid-ranking officers, and described it as a downsizing of the presence.
Another source, a regional official close to Iran, said those still in Syria had left their offices and were staying out of sight. “The Iranians won’t abandon Syria but they reduced their presence and movements to the greatest extent.”
Guards chiefs are thought to have raised concerns with Syrian authorities that information leaks from the Syrian security services had played a part in the lethal Israeli attacks. The precision of the strikes had prompted the Guards to move operational sites and officers’ residences, amid concerns of an intelligence breach.
Iranian assets in Syria and Iraq also face retaliation from the US after three American soldiers were killed in a drone strike last week on a military base in northern Jordan. The US has blamed the attack on Kata’ib Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian militia in Iraq.
US media reported on Thursday that the White House had approved plans for strikes over several days on Iraqi and Syrian targets including “Iranian personnel and facilities.”
