“Seyed Davoud Bitaraf, a local employee of the Islamic Republic of Iran Embassy in Damascus, was martyred before noon on Sunday, December 15, when terrorists shot at his car in Damascus,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.
It is “the responsibility of the transitional government of Syria to identify and prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this crime,” said ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.
Bitaraf’s body was only recently identified, according to the statement.
Baghaei said they are following up on the matter through “various diplomatic and international channels.”
Iran was a key ally of the regime of Bashar al-Assad who was removed from power by rebel forces on December 8.
Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, said that after the fall of Assad, they moved embassy staff to Beirut “for two to three days to ensure security and prevent any possible harm,” IRNA reported on Sunday, the same day Bitaraf was killed.
Akbari said they hope to get back to work in Damascus as quickly as possible and the new Syrian authorities “have also announced their readiness and said that they will provide the necessary guarantees for the security of the embassy and other activities.”
Tehran’s embassy in Damascus has been a target during the Syrian conflict. Israeli strikes targeted the consular section in April, killing a top commander of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF).
