An Israeli airstrike on the Damascus airport has reportedly killed nearly a dozen senior Iranian military officials, which one expert told Fox News Digital would prove Israel’s ability to maintain a multi-faceted defense of the region. 

"While there is no independent confirmation of Guard Corps names or ranks, the IRGC has long seen Syria as a critical regional hub to project power into the Eastern Mediterranean and connect its constellation of proxies called the ‘Axis of Resistance,’" Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. 

"It should come as a shock to no one that Guard Corps elite are operating there, especially amid a regional war, which they are directing far away from their own soil," he added. 

"Similarly, should the strike be independently verified, it would be more proof of Israel being able to hold back and deter elements of the Axis of Resistance in other geographies while fighting to defeat Hamas in Gaza," Taleblu stressed.

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Syrian media claimed that Israel had targeted sites in southern Syria and near Damascus in waves that aimed to disrupt and Iran’s operations in the country. 

A report from The Jerusalem Post claimed the strike killed 11 leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at the airport on Thursday night. 

The IRGC leadership targeted also reportedly included Nur Rashid, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards in eastern Syria, who only suffered injuries from the attack. The group had supposedly visited the country to meet with high-ranking delegates from Syria. 

IRAN AND HAMAS ARGUE OVER CREDIT FOR OCT. 7 TERROR ATTACKS: ‘LOOKING TO WASH BLOOD AWAY WITH BLOOD’

Israel has reportedly launched strikes against IRGC personnel in Damascus across the past week: Iranian leaders claimed that one such strike on Monday killed senior IRGC commander Sayyed Razi Mousavi, who was responsible for coordinating a military alliance between Iran and Syria. 

Iran state media interrupted programming to announce Mousavi’s death and described him as one of the oldest advisers for the IRGC in Syria. 

Israel has not shied away from Iran’s aggressions, which Tehran pushes in the region through its various proxy groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. 

FEARS GROW OF A WIDER CONFLICT BREWING IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett this week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed said that Israel has even retaliated inside Iran for terrorist attacks committed in 2022, saying that he told his security chiefs during his administration that his goal was "to avoid, if reasonably possible, local clashes" with Iran proxies. 

"As prime minister, I made another decision regarding Iran," Bennett wrote. "I directed Israel's security forces to make Tehran pay for its decision to sponsor terror."

"Enough impunity," he stressed. "After Iran launched two failed UAV attacks on Israel in February 2022, Israel destroyed a UAV base on Iranian soil."

"In March 2022, Iran's terror unit attempted to kill Israeli tourists in Turkey and failed. Shortly thereafter, the commander of that very unit was assassinated in the center of Tehran," he added.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

A New Hampshire casino owned by a former state senator accused of buying luxury cars with a fraudulently obtained COVID-19 relief loan will be shut down Jan. 1 but allowed to reopen in six months if sold to a new owner, the state lottery commission said in a decision made public Thursday

The commission tried in August to permanently revoke Andy Sanborn’s gaming operator’s license, but he appealed the decision and requested a hearing before an independent examiner. That hearing was held earlier this month, and a decision was issued Wednesday.

Sanborn, a Republican from Bedford, owns the Concord Casino within The Draft Sports Bar and Grill in Concord and was seeking to open a much larger charitable gaming venue a few miles away. But the commission argued that his license should be revoked because he improperly obtained federal funds, misrepresented how he spent the money, paid himself large sums as rent and failed to keep accurate records overall.

FORMER NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE SENATOR ACCUSED OF USING COVID-19 RELIEF FUNDS TO BUY LUXURY CARS

According to the investigation, Sanborn fraudulently obtained $844,000 in funding from the Small Business Administration between December 2021 and February 2022. Casinos and charitable gaming facilities weren’t eligible for such loans, but Sanborn omitted his business name, "Concord Casino," from his application and listed his primary business activity as "miscellaneous services," officials said.

He’s accused of spending $181,000 on two Porsche race cars and $80,000 on a Ferrari for his wife. Sanborn also paid himself more than $183,000 for what he characterized as rent for his Concord properties, investigators said.

In his ruling, hearings examiner Michael King said it was not within his purview to determine if the loan application was fraudulent, but said filing it with "clear false and/or misleading information" was enough to suspend his license because such action "undermines the public confidence in charitable gaming." He also rejected Sanborn’s claim that the cars were not purchased with the loan, saying there was a "straight line" from the receipt of the loan to the purchase of the vehicles. And he noted that none of the cars were American made, which violates the terms of the loan.

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Revocation of the license was not appropriate, King said, because other license holders had been given opportunities to sell their businesses prior to suspensions or revocations.

Sanborn, who did not attend the hearing because he was at a medical appointment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. His lawyer had argued that the state’s entire case was built on a sloppy investigation and unproven allegations about the COVID-19 relief loan.

At the time the allegations were announced in August, officials said federal authorities had been notified and that the state had begun a criminal investigation.