Israeli strikes have hit an Iranian consulate annex in Syria’s capital, state media has said as a war monitor reported eight people were killed.

Iranian state media said a senior commander with the Quds Force of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was among the dead.

Syria’s official news agency SANA said “the Israeli attack targeted the Iranian consulate building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus”.

AFP correspondents at the scene confirmed the building next to the embassy, an annex, had been levelled, in an upscale neighbourhood of Damascus. AFP images showed a pile of rubble about two stories high beside a fenced compound.

Iranian media also reported that the strikes in Damascus completely destroyed the annex building, and that the ambassador was unharmed.

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