Guards Speak On Killing Of Iranian Generals In Syria.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards say seven officers have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria's capital, Damascus.

Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the elite Quds Force, and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, his deputy, were named among the dead.

Iran and Syria's governments condemned the attack, which destroyed a building next door to the Iranian embassy, and it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria that, it says are linked to Iran and allied armed groups which are armed, funded and trained by the Revolutionary Guards.

The Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Syria, and the attack will be seen as a serious escalation.

The Israelis appear to be testing the resolve of the Iranians and their allies and signaling that they are serious about increasing pressure on their enemies, and both Iran and Hezbollah have not been pushing as hard as to see if Iran and Hezbollah are going to push back.

Syria's defence ministry said Israeli aircraft targeted the Iranian consulate building, which was on a highway in the western Mezzeh district of Damascus, from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights.