Iran promises to avenge Israel.

Iran has pledged to retaliate after claiming that an officer in its Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital Damascus. West Jerusalem has not responded to the Iranian allegation, in keeping with its unofficial policy of rarely commenting on strikes in the region. The IRGC announced the martyrdom of guardsman Milad Haydari, one of the IRGC’s military advisers and officers, in a statement broadcast by Iranian media on Friday. Tehran called the attack a “criminal” action which it pledged would not go “unanswered.” As Iran’s influence in Syria grew due to its support for President Bashar Assad in the civil war, Israel has frequently struck what it says are Iran-linked targets in the country. The foreign ministries of Iran and Syria have both strongly condemned Friday’s airstrikes.

Last week, the Pentagon said Iran-linked militias killed an American contractor and injured another in a drone attack at a base housing US soldiers. Washington retaliated the same day with an attack on facilities used by