Prominent Iran Guards Commander Killed in Syria Ambush

IRGC member Hassan Abdullahzadeh with slain Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. (Mehr News Agency)
IRGC member Hassan Abdullahzadeh with slain Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. (Mehr News Agency)
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Prominent Iran Guards Commander Killed in Syria Ambush

IRGC member Hassan Abdullahzadeh with slain Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. (Mehr News Agency)
IRGC member Hassan Abdullahzadeh with slain Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. (Mehr News Agency)

Two members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed in an ambush set by ISIS in central Syria.

ISIS ambushed a military convoy in al-Sukhnah area, east of Palmyra city in the eastern Homs countryside, killing IRGC military adviser Hassan Abdullahzadeh and his companion Mohsen Abbasi.

Iranian media announced the death of both IRGC members on Thursday.

Sources said Abdullahzadeh was the security officer at the Sayyida Zainab region, south of Damascus, then Alboukamal area, and was one of the most prominent Iranian military advisors during the Damascus and Aleppo battles.

The Fars News Agency reported that both militants died in an ambush set up by ISIS in the desert area between Deir Ezzor and Palmyra.

A picture published by Mehr News Agency showed Abdullahzadeh with slain Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike near Baghdad airport in early 2020.

Syrian opposition media sources had reported about a large-scale attack launched by ISIS on Thursday, targeting a military convoy of seven Iranian militia vehicles in al-Sukhnah area.

According to the sources, some 25 of the convoy members were killed, including the senior IRGC commanders.

The desert areas east of Homs and Deir Ezzor are areas under Iran’s influence, with Alboukamal, on the border with Iraq, as its stronghold.

IRGC forces and Iran-backed militias, including the Fatemiyoun Division, Zainabiyoun Brigade, Iraqi Hezbollah and Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as Syrian regime forces and their allied militias are all deployed in the region.

ISIS cells are present in various hideouts in Syria’s desert and they have been intensifying their attacks there.

Hours after the al-Sukhnah area ambush, the ISIS targeted Fatemiyoun militants on the outskirts of Shoula town in northern Deir Ezzor, killing and injuring several militants and detaining others.

In April, the Russian air force launched a military campaign to support regime forces and its allied militias to pursue ISIS cells in the desert.



Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
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Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Tuesday hailed Pope Francis's support for Gazans and engagement with the small Catholic community in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The Catholic church's highest authority in the region, who is considered a potential successor to the late pontiff, Pizzaballa told journalists in Jerusalem that "Gaza represents, a little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate".

Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, advocated peace and "closeness to the poor... and to the neglected one", said the patriarch.

These positions became particularly evident in Francis's response to the Israel-Hamas war which broke out in October 2023, Pizzaballa said.

"He was very close to the community of Gaza, the parish of Gaza, he kept calling them many times -- for a certain period, also every day, every evening at 7 pm," said the patriarch.

He added that by doing so, the pope "became for the community something stable, and also comforting for them, and he knew this".

Out of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Since the early days of the war, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge there.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. The day before his death, in a final Easter message delivered on Sunday, he condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation" in the besieged territory.

"Work for justice... but without becoming part of the conflict," said Pizzaballa of the late pontiff's actions.

"For us, for the Church, it leaves an important legacy."

The patriarch thanked the numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who have offered their condolences, preferring not to comment on the lack of any official message from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even as "the local authorities... were not always happy" with the pope's positions or statements, they were "always very respectful", he said.

Pizzaballa said he will travel to Rome on Wednesday, after leading a requiem mass for the pope at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the morning.

As one of the 135 cardinal electors, the Latin patriarch will participate in the conclave to elect a new pope.

Pizzaballa, a 60-year-old Italian Franciscan who also speaks English and Hebrew, arrived in Jerusalem in 1990 and was made a cardinal in September 2023, just before the Gaza war began.

His visits to Gaza and appeals for peace since then have attracted international attention.