Israeli airstrike on Damascus killed at least 4 Iranian advisers, state media say

DAMASCUS, Syria — An Israeli strike on the Syrian capital on Saturday destroyed a building used by the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, killing at least four Iranians, Syrian and Iranian state media reported.Iranian state television said four advisers from the Revolutionary Guard had been killed in the strike in Damascus, without identifying them, adding that Israel was behind the strike. Nour News, whichSyrian state TV reported that the "Israeli aggression" targeted a residential building in the tightly guarded western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh, home to several diplomatic missions. Saturday's strike was close to the embassies of Venezuela and South Africa.The Israeli military did not comment on the strike.A grocer near the scene of the strike said he heard five consecutive explosions at about 9:15 a.m., adding that he later witnessed the bodies of a man and a woman being taken away as well as three wounded people."What happened was terrifying. I collapsed," said Khaled Mawed, who lives nearby.Israel launched the offensive after an unprecedented cross-border attack into Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage. Roughly 130 hostages are believed by Israel to remain in Hamas captivity. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.Iranian and Syrian officials have long acknowledged Iran has advisers and military experts in Syria, but denied there were any ground troops. Thousands of fighters from Iran-backed groups took part in Syria's conflict that started in March 2011, helping tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad.Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but it has said that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.Over the past weeks, rockets have been fired from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, adding to tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border and attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.