UPDATE - 4 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps advisers killed in Israeli attack on Syrian capital: Report

CHANGES HEADLINE, UPDATES DEATH TOLL

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Saturday that four of its advisers were killed in an Israeli attack on the Syrian capital, Damascus.

In a statement, the IRGC said that “in addition to the killing of four military advisors serving in Syria, there were also deaths among Syrian forces” in the Israeli attack.

The statement provided no additional information about the number of deaths in Syrian forces.

The Iranian Mehr News Agency also reported that four Iranian IRGC members were killed in an Israeli raid on a neighborhood in the Syrian capital.

“Two IRGC senior military advisors to Syria and two other members of the IRGC were martyred in the Israeli Zionist regime's air strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus,” the agency reported.

Meanwhile, the Syrian SANA news agency confirmed the attack without providing details regarding the casualties.

Israel on Saturday launched an attack that targeted a residential building in the Al-Mazah neighborhood, west of Damascus, the agency reported.

A nongovernmental organization, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said in a statement that a violent explosion was heard in the Al-Mazah neighborhood, west of the capital Damascus, next to the Al-Muhammadi Mosque, as a result of an Israeli missile targeting a 4-story building.

According to initial reports, the attack resulted in the death of five persons, the statement added.

The attack also resulted in the complete destruction of the building, said the group.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli side regarding the attack.

Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has occasionally carried out attacks on military positions belonging to Iran-backed groups and the Syrian army in Syria.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi