Iran promised to avenge the killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer during an alleged Israeli airstrike on Damascus, Syria, last week, saying the “Zionist regime will undoubtedly receive a response to this crime.”

The Times of Israel, cited the Tasnim news agency and identified the officer as Milad Heydari, an Iranian military adviser. The airstrike occurred just after midnight on Friday. SANA, the Syrian news agency, said Syria’s forces were able to intercept “hostile missiles” over Damascus, but some managed to break through and cause material damage. 

SANA reported that Israel used multiple missiles that were fired from the occupied Syrian Golan. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the war monitoring group based in Britain, said the missiles were aimed at locations in southwest Damascus that were known to be occupied by both the Syrian military and groups that are aligned with Iran, Al Arabiya News reported. 

Israel has not commented on the attack, which would make its sixth in March and the third time in four days.

SANA reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard condemned the “silence and lack of action by effective international bodies in the face of crimes and offenses by the Zionist regime,” but said the “Zionist regime will receive a response to this crime.”

Jason Brodsky, an Iran analyst, said Tehran’s decision to come out “so publicly” with the news of Heydri’s death, indicates that the Iranian regime is “setting the table to retaliate.”

“One option is against U.S. forces [stationed in Syria] as has been done before,” he said. “If it didn’t want to retaliate, there would have likely been a vague announcement of the death of an IRGC officer in Syria carrying out his duties.”

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said Israel will not tolerate Iran and Hezbollah.

“We have tensions on all fronts,” Gallant said. “The Iranians are extending their outreach to Judea and Samaria and Gaza, and are attempting to entrench themselves in Syria and Lebanon. We will not allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to harm us. We have not allowed it in the past, we won’t allow it now, or anytime in the future. When necessary—we will push them out of Syria to where they belong—and that is Iran.”

SANA reported that Israel carried out another round of airstrikes early Sunday in Syria’s Homs province that wounded five soldiers.

The Israeli military said it shot down an unspecified “aircraft” shortly after the bombing that crossed into its airspace. 

TRENDPOST: Since 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria. The Trends Journal has reported extensively on Israel’s not-so-clandestine war against Iran playing out in Syria. (See “SYRIA SAYS ISRAEL LAUNCHED ATTACK ON ALEPPO AIRPORT” 7 Mar 2023, “TOP TREND 2023: MIDDLE EAST MELTDOWN” 3 Jan 2023, and “ISRAEL KEEPS BOMBING SYRIAN AIRPORTS, KILLS MORE TROOPS” 20 Sep 2022.)

Israel has carried out about 400 airstrikes in Syria and other parts of the Middle East. During that time, hundreds of thousands of people have died and “millions made homeless.” And while Iran and Russia were invited into the country by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States and Turkey have illegally invaded the nation… with the U.S. controlling its oil fields.

Also, as with the United States, NATO and its allies which have invaded, colonized and destroyed nations across the globe, Israel can bomb Syria, invade Lebanon, steal Palestinian land and there is no condemnation. But when other nations commit similar crimes against humanity they are disparaged and disgraced by politicians and the mainstream media.