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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)
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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.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.