Damascus, Syria. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Monday that seven of its members, including two generals, were killed in an airstrike that struck Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital.

Syrian officials and state media pinned the attack on Israel, which declined to comment.

The strike on Iran’s embassy compound appears to signify an escalation of Israel’s targeting of Iranian military officials and their allies in Syria, which has intensified since Hamas militants -- who are supported by Iran -- attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

Clashes have also increased since then between Israel and Hezbollah -- another militant group supported by Iran -- along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Israel, which rarely acknowledges such strikes, said it had no comment on the latest attack in Syria.

Earlier reports by local televisions said that the attack killed Iranian military adviser Gen. Ali Reza Zahdi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.

While Iran's consular building was leveled in the attack, according to Syria's state news agency, SANA, its main embassy building remained intact.

Iran's ambassador, Hossein Akbari, condemned Israel and said as many as seven people were killed. First responders were still searching for bodies under the rubble. Akbari said two police officers who guard the building were wounded.

He vowed revenge for the strike “at the same magnitude and harshness.”

A similar strike on a building in Damascus in January killed at least five Iranian advisers. Last week, airstrikes over the strategic eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour near the Iraqi border killed an Iranian adviser.

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