AT least two senior Iranian commanders are among seven dead after a consulate was destroyed in a blast in Syria.
Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday.
Iran said seven of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military advisers, including senior commanders, were killed.
Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the elite Quds Force, and his deputy Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahim have been named among those dead.
The ambassador is understood to have survived, and Iranian state television reported this was an "assassination attempt".
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Tehran's ambassador to Damascus has now said that the Iranian response to the strike will be "harsh".
Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian wrote on X: "With extreme brutality, contrary to all international conventions, they targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy...We will reciprocate when we want."
Israel has not commented on claims it was responsible for the strike.
Tensions have been rising in the past week, with Israel killing an Iran-backed Hezbollah commander.
Horror pics of the scene show the Iranian consulate reduced to rubble.
Smoke could be seen billowing into the sky, while crowds gathered on the streets.
Others could be seen scanning the rubble for survivors and bodies, while nearby buildings were damaged in the blast, too.
Snaps also showed Syria's foreign minister Faisal Mekdad and the Iranian ambassador in Damascus Hossein Akbari near the blast site, surveying the damage.
Both a Lebanese security source who spoke to Reuters and Iran's Tasnim news agency claimed it had been an Israeli airstrike.
SkyNews reported an Israeli military spokesperson said: "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media."
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BBC reported the Syrian defence ministry said Israeli aircraft targeted the consulate building at about 5pm local time today.
Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles, but others made it through and "destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside", the ministry added.
DEAD MEN NAMED
The IRGC announced tonight that Brigadier Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi had been killed in the blast.
Along with the commanders, the five officers killed in the attack were named as Hossein Amanallahi, Sayid Mehdi Jalalati, Mohsen Sedaghat, Ali Agha Babaei and Sayid Ali Salehi Roozbahani.
This week dramatic footage showed Ali Abed Akhsan Naim being killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The short clip shows Naim's final moments alive as his car was driving down a road in southern Lebanon’s Bazouriye.
The Israeli military said on Friday that Naim was one of the Iranian-backed militia's leaders in heavy-warhead rocket fire, responsible for conducting and planning attacks against Israeli civilians.
Since the commencement of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, there have been almost daily skirmishes along Israel's border with Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon have killed around 270 Hezbollah combatants and 50 civilians, including doctors, civilians, and journalists.
In northern Israel, over a dozen Israeli forces and a half-dozen civilians were killed.
Israel also launched its bloodiest attacks in months in northern Syria's Aleppo region early Friday.
Three Hezbollah militants were confirmed to be among the dead in Syria, war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Naim's death came just days after Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar's righthand man Marwan Issa was killed in another Israeli airstrike.
Branded the "Shadow Man", Issa was number three on the IDF's most-wanted list following the horrors of Hamas' massacre in Israel which killed 1,200 people.
'WALKING NIGHTMARE'
He was killed on March 10 during an operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed today.
Issa was the deputy commander of Hamas' military wing and acted as one of Yahya Sinwar's henchmen.
He died alongside another top terror chief - Ghazi Abu Tamaa.
The terror boss reported directly to Sinwar, the monster dubbed “The Hamas Bin Laden” who masterminded the October massacre in Israel.
Nicknamed the "Shadow Man", Issa was number three on Israel's most-wanted list, alongside Mohammed Deif and Sinwar.
A source from inside the terror group previously told Reuters: "Brother Issa is the walking nightmare of the enemy."
Israeli forces are still hunting his fellow terror chiefs, despite some reports Deif was killed in an earlier strike.
