Iran Guards say Israeli strike kills senior general in Syria

An Israeli strike in Syria has killed a senior general with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the military force said, with Tehran vowing retribution.

The incident further raises tension in the Middle East where Iran-aligned groups have escalated attacks since Iran-backed Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering a war with Israel.

Iranian state media also reported the death of Razi Moussavi, describing him as "one of the most experienced advisers" of Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has intensified attacks in Syria, particularly against Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Moussavi is the most senior Quds Force commander to be killed outside Iran since General Qasem Soleimani. A US drone strike in Baghdad nearly four years ago -- on January 3, 2020 -- killed Soleimani, the Quds Force leader.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed condolences for Moussavi's death, saying Israel "will certainly pay for this crime".

The general "was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus," official news agency IRNA reported, using a different name for Sayyida Zeinab south of the Syrian capital.

Moussavi was "active in the field of providing logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria," IRNA said, referring to groups backed by Tehran and arrayed against Israel.

An IGRC statement said a "missile attack" killed Moussavi, and vowed to avenge his death.

The statement noted that Moussavi was a "companion" of Soleimani.

- 'Three missiles' -

Iran's state TV said "three missiles" targeted Moussavi and aired footage showing smoke rising from the area of the strike.

Tehran's ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari told Iran's Mehr news agency that the general's house was targeted "at 4:20 pm (1320 GMT) by three missiles."

"The building was destroyed," and Moussavi's body was later found in the yard, he said.

A Britain-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported Israeli strikes on positions used by Iranian groups and Hezbollah in the Sayyida Zeinab area.

Residents reported hearing loud explosions and seeing columns of smoke rising from farms in the area.

"We consider this assassination a flagrant attack that crosses the limits," Lebanon's Hezbollah said in a statement, adding that Moussavi had supported the group for decades.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been exchanging regular fire over their border during the Gaza war.

Since Syria's civil war began in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria, primarily against Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

On December 2, the IRGC accused Israel of killing two of its members in Syria, where the force said they had been on an advisory mission, without providing further details.

The Islamic republic, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has hailed the deadly attacks on southern Israel as a "success" but denied any direct involvement.

Iran does not recognise Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Israel rarely comments on reported strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

8 killed in Turkish strikes on Syria

Turkish air strikes killed eight civilians in Syria's Kurdish-held northeast Monday, a war monitor and local media said, as Ankara launched operations in Iraq and Syria following deadly attacks on its soldiers.

On Saturday, Turkey announced a new wave of air strikes in retaliation for two separate attacks on its bases in northern Iraq that killed 12 soldiers, which Ankara blamed on Kurdish militants.

Eight civilians were killed in strikes on Monday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, revising an earlier toll of six deaths.

The Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said five of the victims were employees of a printing works in the northern city of Qamishli, near the Turkish border.

Syrian Kurdish news agency ANHA also reported eight deaths.

The strikes hit more than 20 targets, primarily in the Qamishli area of the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, the monitor and AFP correspondents in the region said.

Farhad Shani, spokesman for the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said on X, formerly Twitter, that the strikes destroyed "more than 25" civilian facilities and confirmed the death toll of eight civilians.

The SDF spearheaded the battle to dislodge Islamic State group fighters from their last scraps of territory in Syria in 2019.

On Saturday evening, an AFP correspondent as well as the Observatory reported strikes against oil sites near the Turkish border, without reporting any victims.

In October, Turkey intensified air strikes on Syria's northeast after an attack in Ankara that wounded two security personnel earlier that month.

A branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies -- claimed responsibility for the attack, the first bombing to hit the Turkish capital since 2016.

Turkey views the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of the PKK.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria.

The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it began in 2011 with the authorities' brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, spiralling into a devastating war involving foreign armies and jihadists.