Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has condemned in strongest terms the recent assassination of five military advisors of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a missile strike by Israeli regime vowing a response to the cowardly act.

“Certainly, the continuation of such terrorist and criminal acts, which are indicative of the increasing failure and defeats of the illegitimate Zionist regime in achieving its malicious goals and the depth of its frustration with the fighters of the resistance front, will not go unanswered by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Raeisi said in a statement on Saturday.

The IRGC said earlier in the day that four of its members serving on a military advisory mission in Syria were assassinated in an Israeli strike on a residential building in Damascus. It said later than a fifth advisor had succumbed to his injuries.

The IRGC named its martyred advisors as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aqazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi and Mohammad Amin Samadi.

“The recent crimes of the usurping Zionist regime, which…. are committed under the shadow of the support of hegemonic countries, chief among them the United States, and the silence of international organizations, will undoubtedly be another stain on the black record of all self-proclaimed human rights advocates,” Iran’s president said.

Raeisi also offered his condolences to the families of the martyrs, the Iranian leadership, and the entire nation.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus to help the war-torn Arab country fight off the foreign-backed militants who have been fighting the democratically-elected Syrian government since 2011.

The Israeli regime has ramped up its airstrikes on Syria since early October, when it launched the ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.