According to state media, Israeli strikes occurred on Monday against an Iranian embassy annex building in the capital of Syria, following reports from a war monitor that six people had died inside.
"The Israeli attack targeted the Iranian consulate building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus," according to Syria's official news agency SANA.
Israel, which has increased its attacks on terrorist organizations with ties to Iran as part of its ongoing Gaza war against Hamas since October 7, did not immediately respond.
AFP reporters on the scene verified that the annex next to the embassy in a posh neighborhood of Damascus had been demolished.
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Iranian media also said that the ambassador was unharmed and that the annex building was destroyed in the Damascus strikes.
"Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not harmed in the Israeli attack," the Iranian news agency Nour reported.
Two AFP correspondents confirmed on the scene that the explosion had destroyed the building adjacent to the embassy.
"Israeli missiles... destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy... in Damascus, killing six people," according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The earlier report, released by Syria's official news agency SANA, stated that "our air defense systems confronted enemy targets in the vicinity of Damascus."
Days prior, the Observatory had revealed that Israeli strikes in Syria had claimed the lives of 53 people, including seven Hezbollah members and 38 soldiers.
The monitor said that since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, the number of Syrian army casualties from Israeli strikes was the highest.
