IRGC spokesman killed in Israeli strike, US urges citizens to leave Syria

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) main spokesman was killed in an Israeli air strike on Friday, as Iran continued its attacks on the Gulf and the United States urged its citizens to leave Syria amid security concerns.

Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, the spokesperson and head of the public relations of the influential IRGC, was killed in a strike early on Friday, according to Iranian state media and Israel’s state broadcaster Kan. The location of the killing was not disclosed.

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei struck a defiant tone in a fresh statement Friday, warning that enemies would have their “security taken away.”

The war's reverberations have been also felt in Syria with the United States urging its citizens on Friday to leave the country without relying on government assistance. The alert came after Israel carried out strikes in the south of the country, saying it was responding to attacks targeting the Druze minority, which shares ties with Israel’s own Druze community.

Meanwhile, Iran has been continuing its strikes on the Gulf, targeting critical energy infrastructure. Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by a drone attack that caused fires but no casualties, authorities said on Friday. 

Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, began on Friday under warplanes and missile fire across the Middle East. Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound was closed for Eid prayers for the first time in decades.

In some parts of Lebanon, Eid unfolded in displacement camps, with more than 800,000 people uprooted by Israeli strikes and the death toll surpassing 1,000.

In Iran, the country’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said on Friday that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians have died so far, including both civilians and security personnel, as the country also marks Nowruz, the Persian and Kurdish New Year, under wartime conditions.