Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday, and a Lebanese security source told Reuters that the senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Reza Zahdi, was killed in the attack.

The Iranian Tasnim news agency said five people were killed in the Israeli raid, while the official Syrian news agency SANA reported an unspecified number of dead and injured.

Reuters reporters at the scene in the Mazzeh district of the Syrian capital saw smoke rising from the rubble of a building that was leveled to the ground and emergency vehicles parked outside.

Syrian state television confirmed that the consulate building was attacked. Earlier, Iranian media reported that a building near the embassy was bombed, and the Iranian Students News Agency said the target was the consulate and the ambassador’s residence.

Israel, which has frequently struck Iranian targets during the six-month war in Gaza, declined to comment on the incident, following its usual practice. An Israeli army spokesman said, "We do not comment on reports in foreign media."

Since the Oct. 7 attack by the Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas movement on Israel, Israel has intensified its airstrikes in Syria against the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, both of which support President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

A spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, when asked about any impacts on Canadian diplomatic operations, said there are no Canadian diplomats in Damascus. The Canadian embassy in Syria suspended operations in 2012.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said US President Joe Biden is aware of the strike and the team is looking into it.