US, Israel On High Alert As Iran Vows Retaliation Following Strike On Consulate In Syria

The US is on high alert and is preparing for an Iranian attack on Israeli or American assets in the West Asia region as Tehran mulls response to Israel’s strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria which eliminated a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.

US officials believe that the attack could happen as early as next week. “We’re definitely at a high state of vigilance,” one official was quoted as saying by US broadcaster CNN.

Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Monday and killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi of IRGC’s Quds force chief – the Iranian IRGC’s foreign spy and paramilitary arm.

A separate report by the New York Times said that Israel has also placed its military on high alert. The Israeli army has cancelled leave for combat units and blocked GPS while recalling some reservists to respective air defence units.

The report also said citing two Iranian officials that Tehran has placed all its armed forces on full high alert and it has decided that Iran must respond to the Damascus attack directly in order to create deterrence.

“Our brave men will punish the Zionist regime. We warn that no act by any enemy against our holy system will go unanswered, and the art of the Iranian nation is to break the power of empires,” General Hossein Salami, commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, told a gathering in Tehran while attending the funeral of the officers.

Iran said that seven Iranian military advisers died in the strike, including Zahedi and said it reserves the right “to take a decisive response”.

US President Joe Biden discussed the threat from Iran in a phone call on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Our teams have been in regular and continuous contact since then. The United States fully supports the defence of Israel against threats from Iran,” a senior Biden administration official said.

Iran has retaliated earlier to US military action. In 2020, when the US killed General Qassem Soleimani, Iran fired missiles at US bases in Iraq and injured more than 100 troops.