The airstrike in Syria killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Lebanon and Syria until 2016. It also killed Zahedi's deputy, Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.

Faced with ongoing attacks by the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Shiite militias throughout the Middle East in the wake of Hamas's brutal October 7 massacre, which sparked the war in Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iran-linked terror targets in Syria, killing numerous IRGC operatives, as well as members of Hezbollah and other Iranian proxy groups.

The Quds Force is a branch of Iran's military that supports Hezbollah, Syrian militias, Hamas, PLO and the Houthis in Yemen. It is Iran's foreign terrorist militia operations. The Quds Force trains and equips foreign Islamic revolutionary groups around the Middle East.

Iran creates and uses proxy militia forces to attack across the middle east.