At 00:17 on Monday, April 1, 2024, an elderly Syrian woman was killed alongside her son, and a number of civilians, including a woman, were injured as a result of an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex on the Mazzeh Highway in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, as reported by multiple sources such as state-run SANA news agency.

Everyone inside the consulate building was either injured or killed, and the entire building was destroyed according to SANA news agency quoting a military source.

According to multiple media outlets such as Al-Jazeera, a total of 16 people were killed of whom only two were civilians. The rest of the victims included a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Brigadier General Hajj Rahimi, Hezbollah fighters (among them Mohammad Sanobar), and combatants belonging to other Iran-affiliated militias.

According to the sources, an elderly woman Kamila Mohammad al-Yassini Meridan (Mreiden) was killed alongside her 35-year-old son engineer Naji Irfan Meridan (Mreiden), and multiple sources mourned their death.

Mohammad Alyassini on Facebook mourned the death of his aunt Kamila and his cousin (her son) Naji, saying that he was saddened by their departure: “To God we belong and to him we shall return.”

Rehab Asker shared pictures of Kamila and Naji in a Facebook group titled “SNP” by Syrian News Panorama, announcing their death. Kamila, a woman in her 60s or 70s, while her son was a young man with a thick beard wearing a cap, a green shirt, and a black jacket.

Kamila was a board member of the Ambulance Association Dar Al-Saada for the Elderly, and according to some sources, also an administrative member. Samahir Ali Nassif mourned Kamila’s death in a Facebook post saying “in the name of the Board of Directors of the Ambulance Association, Dar Al-Saada, mourns the martyrdom of one of the board members as a result of the…Israeli bombing of the building where she lives on the Mazzeh Highway.” They also mourned Naji’s death.

Speaking of Kamila’s character, Samahir said: “Mrs. Kamila carried from her name all its meanings and qualities, for the beauty of her soul, the purity of her soul, and her drive to do good with the silence of a believer who is above the falsehood of the world and its beautiful appearances.” He added that Kamila “did not stop giving and offering for the sake of Allah until the last day of her life.. .she was distributing financial aid to the cleaners and the companions of the merciful hands before her departure to the eternal world. Generosity and chastity of the soul are her morals, and a smile of contentment are the qualities of her tolerant face. With her calmness, she adopted speaking the truth and satisfying her conscience. We ask Allah to be among the martyrs and the righteous in the gardens of bliss.”

According to Rehab, local sources also said that Mohamad Snawbar, a Hezbollah fighter had also died and Lubna Maala was critically injured. She was the sister of Syrian Olympic Committee president Firas Maala.

Eyad Batal on Facebook said according to Ayman Abdelnour, the first two floors of the building that had been hit were rented by the consular section of the Iranian embassy. The Meridan family lived on one of the floors of that building.

A military source told SANA that Israel carried out an airstrike “from the direction of the Golan Heights targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus” and that the Syrian Air Defense systems countered the missiles and “shot down some of them.”

Twitter/X user @ccccczzzzz611 shared videos of the incident, one showing the street in the aftermath of the strike with rubble on the ground, cars covered in debris, and the building visibly collapsed. In another video, there was a fire burning on the street where the strike occurred.

Twitter/X user @kalemeh_a shared a video taken from inside the Iranian consulate which was damaged by the strike, with rooms filled with broken furniture and debris. Twitter/X users @HBlwy20490 and @kkadeh188 shared the same picture of the collapsed Iranian consulate building, with a fire burning and smoke billowing out of it in front of the building.

Multiple sources, such as bintjbeil.org on Facebook, shared pictures of the site of the attack, the collapsed building, rescuers searching through the rubble, and smoke billowing out. Al-Alam Syria Channel also shared some images showing a dark cloud of smoke rising over the destroyed building and two thick clouds of white smoke at the end of a beautiful boulevard. Clean Brotherhood’s Facebook account shared a photo where remnants of the destroyed building can be seen.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the airstrike to the Israeli military.

The incident occured at 12:17:00 local time.