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Iranian Guards Adviser Killed in Israeli Strike on Damascus

Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
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Iranian Guards Adviser Killed in Israeli Strike on Damascus

Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser in Damascus was killed on Friday in an Israeli missile strike that targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital, semi-official Iranian news sites reported.
Earlier, Syria's state news agency SANA, citing a Syrian military source, said the country's military had downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights at southern Damascus.
The Iranian news sites identified the dead man as Saeid Alidadi. They did not give his rank.
Asked about the strikes, Israel's military said it did not comment on reports in foreign media.
Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.
Since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas from Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have started scaling back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to concerns about Tehran being sucked into a wider regional conflict, sources have told Reuters.
The Guards will instead rely more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, the sources said.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi told a crowd on Friday that his country would not start a war in the region but would "respond strongly" to anyone who tried to bully it.
Raisi's comments came after days of speculation about how Washington might retaliate after three US soldiers were killed last Saturday in a strike on their base in Jordan by an Iranian-backed group.
CBS News, citing US officials, reported on Thursday that the United States had approved plans for multi-day strikes in Iraq and Syria against multiple targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities in those countries.

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Sistani Calls for Limiting Possession of Weapons to the Iraqi State

This handout picture released by the media office of Iraq's top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani shows him (L) during a meeting with the new representative of the United Nations secretary general for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission to the country (UNAMI), Mohamed al-Hassan of Oman (C), in the central Iraqi city of Najaf on November 4, 2024. (Photo by Sistani's Media Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the media office of Iraq's top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani shows him (L) during a meeting with the new representative of the United Nations secretary general for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission to the country (UNAMI), Mohamed al-Hassan of Oman (C), in the central Iraqi city of Najaf on November 4, 2024. (Photo by Sistani's Media Office / AFP)
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Sistani Calls for Limiting Possession of Weapons to the Iraqi State

This handout picture released by the media office of Iraq's top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani shows him (L) during a meeting with the new representative of the United Nations secretary general for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission to the country (UNAMI), Mohamed al-Hassan of Oman (C), in the central Iraqi city of Najaf on November 4, 2024. (Photo by Sistani's Media Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the media office of Iraq's top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani shows him (L) during a meeting with the new representative of the United Nations secretary general for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission to the country (UNAMI), Mohamed al-Hassan of Oman (C), in the central Iraqi city of Najaf on November 4, 2024. (Photo by Sistani's Media Office / AFP)

Iraq's top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani announced seven factors that would achieve Iraq’s stability.

He made his remarks shortly after Israeli television reported that he was among a list of assassination targets alongside leader of the Houthis in Yemen Abdulmalek al-Houthi, Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem, commander of Iran’s Quds Forces Esmail Qaani and Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Sistani received on Monday new representative of the United Nations secretary-general and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Dr. Mohamed al-Hassan of Oman.

A statement from Sistani’s office called on Iraqis to “derive lessons from the past and to work tirelessly to overcome setbacks and work on building a better future where everyone can live in security, stability and prosperity.”

Sistani has since 2015 been refusing to meet with Iraqi officials in protest over rampant corruption in the country and over how his recommendations have been ignored.

Overcoming corruption demands drafting a practical plan to run the country that relies on competency and integrity and that prevents foreign meddling in Iraq, he added.

It also called for imposing the rule of law and limiting the possession of weapons to the state, he stressed.

“The Iraqis have a long path ahead of them,” he said.

The Iraqi government had protested against the Israeli assassination target list, specifically Sistani’s inclusion in it, calling on the international community to condemn attempts to attack figures who enjoy influence and international respect.

Sistani also said he was “deeply pained by the ongoing tragedies in Lebanon and Gaza,” noting that it was “deeply unfortunate” that the international community and its institutions “have been incapable of imposing effective solutions” to end them or at least protect civilians from Israel’s assaults.

For his part, al-Hassan said he reached an agreement with Sistani to bolster Iraq’s regional and international standing.