Israeli embassies to go on high alert worldwide after attack on Iran's consulate in Damascus

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israel’s embassies will go on high alert worldwide after seven Iranian military advisers were killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike Monday on Iran’s consulate in Syria’s capital.

The embassies were already on heightened alert but will increase it in light of the attack in Damascus, according to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

Iran has accused Israel of being behind the airstrike on the Iranian consulate building next to the Iranian embassy in Damascus that killed two Iranian generals and five officers of the country's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including Gen. Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the IRGC's Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.

Iran’s Ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, said the building was attacked with F-35 fighter jets that launched six missiles.

Akbari said the attack is against all international conventions and vowed a "decisive response."

The attack came amid heightened tensions in the region over Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 32,800 Palestinians and spawned a major humanitarian crisis.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar