Syrian officer killed near Golan Heights as risk of regional escalation mounts

Assassination of Azdashir Darwish seen as latest strike against presence of Iran-linked forces in the area

A member of Syria's security forces looks towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the city of Quneitra. Reuters

A bomb explosion has killed a Syrian officer near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as tensions mount between the Israeli military and Iran-backed forces in the area.

Syrian opposition sources said Azdashir Darwish was the 10th Syrian officer to be killed in the area since Israel launched a war in Gaza in October, triggering attacks on Israeli interests and allies by Iran-affiliated groups across the region.

Pictures posted on Facebook by loyalists of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad showed Syrian soldiers participating in Mr Darwish's funeral on Thursday in his home region of Baniyas, on the Mediterranean coast. His death notice said he was killed by “the hands of treachery and treason.”

The opposition sources described his killing on Wednesday as part of a campaign by Israel to liquidate Syrian military personnel who facilitate the presence of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, as well as other Iran-backed militias, on the Syrian side of the 1974 armistice line.

“Israel has been targeting those lower down in the personnel chain but who play a crucial role in facilitating the movement of the Iranian elements,” said an Amman-based member of the Syrian opposition to Mr Al Assad.

Israel has stepped up its strikes against Hezbollah and other Iran-linked targets in Syria and Lebanon since the Gaza war began on October 7, when Hamas, which is supported by Tehran, launched a surprise attack on Israel.

The spillover of the war in Gaza has raised the risk of a sustained, all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.

Most of the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that borders Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but a 1974 agreement established a small UN-monitored buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied territory and Syria.

Iran's allies, including Hezbollah, have been bolstering their presence near the Golan and have been taking measures against potentially intense Israeli strikes, sources in the Syrian opposition said.