TEHRAN, Iran

Iran said Wednesday that a senior officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been killed in Syria.

Colonel Daoud Jafari, a senior officer in the IRGC’s aerospace division, was killed in a roadside bomb explosion on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, the IRGC said in a statement.

The incident took place on Monday, it said, accusing Israel of carrying out the attack and vowing to respond to it.

The statement did not provide any details about any other casualties in the explosion.

Israel's military rarely comments on its armed operations in Syria but has on many occasions confirmed strikes on Iran-backed groups and fighters in the Arab country.

In March, two IRGC officers were killed in an airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus.

A week later, in retaliation, Iran targeted what it called "Israeli facilities" in Erbil in northern Iraq with precision-guided missiles.

In August, another senior IRGC commander was killed in Syria.

Iran, which supports Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, maintains an extensive military presence in the country, which is often targeted in US and Israeli airstrikes.