BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli airstrikes around the Syrian city of Aleppo killed several people early Monday, including an Iranian military adviser, Syrian state media and Iranian media reported.
Israel did not immediately acknowledge the strikes.
This was the first strike to kill an Iranian official since the April 1 attack Iranian Consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus Which resulted in the deaths of seven people, including two Iranian generals and a member of the Lebanese Hezbollah group. The hit sparked the first ever live hit Iranian military attack On Israel, which raised Fears of a regional war.
The state-run Syrian news agency SANA did not mention a specific death toll in the raids that took place on the southeastern outskirts of Aleppo and resulted in “a number of martyrs and some material losses.”
In Iran, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, which is considered close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, said that Iranian military advisor Saeed Abyar died in the Israeli attack on Aleppo. He did not explain that.
Iran has deployed military advisors in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in the country in March 2011 to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel rarely acknowledges the strikes it carries out in Syria. Syria and Israel have been waging a war since the founding of Israel in 1948, and Israeli strikes have previously targeted Iranian sites and equipment there.
Developments come as… Israel is fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip It is also separately striking targets in Lebanon while Hezbollah launches cross-border attacks on Israel.
