Terrorists attack Iranian consulate in Syria – Tehran
Iran’s consulate in the Syrian city of Aleppo has come under attack by “some terrorist elements,” the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Saturday. A former local Al Qaeda affiliate launched a major offensive against the city this week.
The diplomatic mission was attacked by armed militants, the ministry’s spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, told journalists, adding that the Iranian consul general and all diplomatic staff members currently in Aleppo were unharmed.
Tehran will provide a “serious” response to the attack, “both legally and internationally,” Baghaei said. The spokesman did not provide any details about the incident.
Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), a terrorist group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, attacked government-controlled territory in Northern Syria on Wednesday alongside a collection of allied militias. The terrorists then claimed to have seized some 400 square kilometers of territory and reached the city of Aleppo.
Government forces have since halted the group’s advance, with both Russian and Syrian Air Force launching strikes against the militants over the past days. The Syrian Arab Army also claimed that the strikes inflicted devastating losses on the insurgents.
Moscow has called the developments “an attack on Syria’s sovereignty in the region” and urged Damascus to restore “order there as soon as possible.” Iran branded the offensive “an American-Zionist” plot, suggesting that Washington and West Jerusalem were using HTS as proxies to strike a blow against President Bashar Assad’s government, which supports the Palestinian cause.
