Iran has warned arch-foe Israel that it will punish an air strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals, at its consular annex in Damascus, AFP reports.

Four other people were also reported killed in Monday’s strike which levelled the five-storey building adjacent to the Iranian embassy and further stoked tensions already running high. Israel declined to comment on the strike.

“The evil Zionist regime will be punished at the hands of our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and the other ones,” Khamenei said in a message published on his official website.

President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the attack as a “clear violation of international regulations” which “will not go unanswered”.

“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” Raisi said on his office’s website.