Iran Vows Revenge for Revolutionary Guards Killed in Israeli Strikes on Syria

IRGC chief Hossein Salami (C) attends the funeral procession for two of Iran's revolutionary guard forces killed by Israel in Syria, held in Tehran on April 4, 2023. (AFP)
IRGC chief Hossein Salami (C) attends the funeral procession for two of Iran's revolutionary guard forces killed by Israel in Syria, held in Tehran on April 4, 2023. (AFP)
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Iran Vows Revenge for Revolutionary Guards Killed in Israeli Strikes on Syria

IRGC chief Hossein Salami (C) attends the funeral procession for two of Iran's revolutionary guard forces killed by Israel in Syria, held in Tehran on April 4, 2023. (AFP)
IRGC chief Hossein Salami (C) attends the funeral procession for two of Iran's revolutionary guard forces killed by Israel in Syria, held in Tehran on April 4, 2023. (AFP)

Thousands of Iranians attended a funeral procession in Tehran on Tuesday for two Revolutionary Guards killed in Israeli strikes in Syria last week.

Israel launched several missiles on Friday from the occupied Golan Heights against positions near Damascus, part of a series of attacks over recent days including early Tuesday.

"The Zionists are trying to target the resistance front, but the resistance will become stronger and more motivated," said Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif, according to the Tasnim News Agency.

"We will avenge the blood of martyrs Milad Heidari and Meghdad Mahghani," he vowed, while thousands gathered in central Tehran to mourn them, chanting "down with Israel".

"Follow their path," Heidari's mother told the large crowd at the funeral, urging them to ensure the victims' blood was not spilled in vain.

During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

Iran, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, says it only deploys military advisers in the conflict-ravaged country.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, accused arch enemy Israel of bringing "war and insecurity" to the Middle East and of "creating discord in the region".

In an apparent reference to Israel's recent political turmoil and mass protests against the hard-right government's proposed judicial reforms, he charged that there will be "no escape from internal collapse".



Gunmen Open Fire on a School Van in Pakistan's Punjab Province, Killing 2 Children

File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro
File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro
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Gunmen Open Fire on a School Van in Pakistan's Punjab Province, Killing 2 Children

File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro
File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro

Gunmen opened fire on a school van in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province Thursday, killing two children and wounding six other people, police and officials said.
Authorities said the driver, who was among the wounded, seemed to be the target of the attack, the Associated Press said.
“Our initial investigations indicate that the driver had an enmity with someone,” Mohammad Shakil, a local police official, said. He provided no further details.
Police were still investigating to determine who was behind the firing, and no one has claimed responsibility.
The dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital, said Ghias Gull, a district police chief in Attock, where the shooting occurred.
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsoin Naqvi denounced the attack and ordered the best possible medical treatment be provided to the wounded.
Attock is a district in Punjab province but is not far away from Pakistan's restive northwest.
Militant attacks have surged in Pakistan in recent years, mostly in the northwest bordering Afghanistan. In 2014, Pakistani militants in the worst assault on an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed 147 people, including 132 children.