A timeline of assassinations: 18 prominent Iranian figures attacked by Israel in Syria

Shafaq News / On Monday, Israel launched what could be considered its "strongest" strike against Iran in months by targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus with six missiles fired by F-35 fighter jets.

The attack resulted in the killing of Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a leader in the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with his deputy and five others.

According to official Iranian reports, this strike is not the first of its kind. "The Israeli military, along with its American ally, has previously targeted numerous Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, assassinating several individuals."

The government-affiliated newspaper "Ettela'at" highlighted a list of assassinations carried out by Israel in Syria, targeting IRGC leaders since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7.

According to Ettela'at's report, Israel has assassinated 18 IRGC members, including prominent military leaders, from December 2, 2023, to April 2, 2024.

On December 2, 2023, Israel assassinated two members of the Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Bahaeddin Taheri Zadeh and Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Ataie, after targeting them in an airstrike in Damascus.

On the same day, Brig. Gen. Sayyed Reza Musavi, a prominent leader in the Quds Forces in Syria, was assassinated after being targeted by a drone strike at his residence in Damascus.

On January 20, 2024, five members of the Quds Force were assassinated after their headquarters in Damascus was targeted. They were Brig. Gen. Hajatollah Amidiwar, Gen. Ali Najad Aghazadeh, Hussein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi, and Mohammad Amin Samadi, with Brig. Gen. Hajatollah Amidiwar, the most prominent among them, is responsible for Quds Force intelligence in Syria.

Saeed Ali Dadi, a member of the IRGC, was also assassinated on February 2, 2024, after being targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Damascus.

Similarly, on March 1, 2024, IRGC member Reza Zarei was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian city of Homs. On March 26, Behrouz Vahidi, another member of the IRGC, was assassinated in an aerial attack while he was in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria.

On April 1, 2024, Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed seven Iranian advisers, including senior officers such as Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajirahimi, Hussein Amanollahi, Mehdi Jaladati, Mohsen Sedaghat, Ali Agha Babaei, and Seyed Ali Salehi Rouzbahani, the names were confirmed by the Revolutionary Guards.

Amid the recent escalation between the two parties, Iran threatens to retaliate.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed, on Tuesday, that the recent airstrikes targeting the Iranian embassy in Damascus "will not pass without a response."

"Having failed to destroy the will of the resistance front, the Zionist regime (Israel) has put blind assassinations back on its agenda to save itself. It must know that it will never achieve its goals and that this cowardly crime will not go unanswered," Raisi said.

In turn, the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to "punish" Israel for targeting the Iranian embassy.

Khamenei stated, "The Zionists will regret their crime after the aggression on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, and our men will punish them."

Notably, Israel has conducted previous attacks against Iran's interests and proxies, even before the outbreak of the October 7 war, citing concerns that Iran and its proxies might utilize Syria as "a base for aggression" against it.