By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and ALBERT AJI (Associated Press)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran’s embassy in Syria, killing a senior Iranian military adviser and roughly a handful of other people, Syrian state media said Monday.

The strike on the Iranian consulate building could mark an escalation of the Israeli military’s ongoing targeting of Iranian military officials and allies in Syria, which have intensified since the onset of its war with Hamas in Gaza on Oct.7.

Israel, which rarely acknowledges such strikes, said it had no comment about the Syrian media reports.

The Iranian Arabic-language state television Al-Alam and pan-Arab television station Al-Mayadeen, which has reporters in Syria, said the strike killed Iranian military adviser Gen. Ali Reza Zahdi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.

Iranian Ambassador Hossein Akbari condemned Israel and said as many as seven people were killed, but first responders were still searching for any other bodies under the rubble. He said two police officers who guard the building were wounded.

Akbari vowed revenge for the strike “at the same magnitude and harshness.”

In comments to the media after meeting Akbari, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said “several” people were killed. Mekdad in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, condemned Israel over the attack.

Iranian state television said the Iranian ambassador’s residence was in the consular building, which stood next to the embassy.

State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military source, said the building in the tightly guarded neighborhood of Mazzeh was leveled.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years.

Such airstrikes have escalated in recent months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ongoing clashes between Israel’s military and Hezbollah on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Though it rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, Israel has said it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

An Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighborhood in December killed a longtime adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria, Seyed Razi Mousavi. A similar strike on a building in Damascus in January killed at least five Iranian advisers. Last week, airstrikes over the strategic eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour near the Iraqi border killed an Iranian adviser.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. traffic deaths fell 3.6% last year, but still, almost 41,000 people were killed on the nation’s roadways, according to full-year estimates by safety regulators.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was the second year in a row that fatalities decreased. The agency also released final numbers for 2022 on Monday, saying that 42,514 people died in crashes.

NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said that traffic deaths declined in the fourth quarter of last year, marking the seventh straight quarterly drop that started with the second quarter of 2022.

The declines come even though people are driving more. Federal Highway Administration estimates show that Americans drove 67.5 billion more miles last year than the previous year, a 2.1% increase. The death rate per 100 million miles driven fell to 1.26 last year, down from 1.33 in 2022, NHTSA said.

Authorities have said that even with a decline, the number of deaths is still too high. Shulman blamed the problem in part on distracted driving. In 2022, an estimated 3,308 people were killed in crashes that involved distracted drivers, while 289,310 were injured.

Almost 20% of people killed in distracted driving crashes were people outside of vehicles including pedestrians, bicyclists and others, she said.

“Distracted driving is extremely dangerous,” she said while kicking off a rebranded campaign against it called “Put the Phone Away or Pay.” The agency will start an advertising campaign this month, and law enforcement officers will crack down on the behavior in a campaign from April 4 to 8.

Traffic deaths spiked in 2021 with a 10.5% increase over 2020 as people started driving more as the COVID-19 pandemic started to ease. That was the highest number since 2005 and the largest percentage increase since 1975.

At the time, authorities blamed the increase on speeding and more reckless behavior, as well as distracted driving.

Part of the increase in crash deaths then was due to people driving more as the coronavirus pandemic waned. NHTSA reported that the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled increased 2.2% to 1.37 in 2021.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thunder and lightning delayed the start of the Easter egg roll at the White House for 90 minutes on Monday, but the event eventually kicked off under gray skies with a large crowd including many youngsters wearing ponchos or colorful jackets against light rain.

More than 40,000 people — 10,000 more than last year — were expected to attend, attempting to coax hard-boiled eggs across the lawn to a finish line. This year’s theme was “EGG-ucation,” and led by Jill Biden, a teacher for more than 30 years.

“Easter reminds us of the power of hope and renewal, and sacrifice and resurrection,” President Joe Biden told attendees, speaking from the White House balcony, where he was flanked by two large Easter bunnies, one wearing sunglasses like his. “But mainly love and grace towards one another.”

Biden said this year’s egg roll was a time to “cherish the blessings, the possibilities that we have as Americans.”

“That’s what I see in our country. We’re a great nation because we’re a good people,” he said. “Our values are solid.”

The president then headed out on the lawn, bending down to help a few youngsters with their eggs. He blew a whistle to officially start the roll — an annual tradition first held in 1878.

Egg roll guests included thousands of military and veteran families, their caregivers and survivors. Members of the general public claimed tickets through an online lottery and were being admitted in nine waves until the evening.

Among those participating with the children was Harry Dunn, a former police officer who defended the U.S. Capitol against rioters on Jan. 6 and is now running for Congress in Maryland. Texas Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, now a Senate candidate, high fived kids after their rolls.

A large schoolhouse erected on the South Lawn offered kids activities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM — including making circuit-breakers or simulating a fossil dig. Youngsters also wrote notes to U.S. troops and first responders with Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit organization.

“I’m a teacher so I love any time when we can turn the White House into a classroom,” the first lady said, noting that “the South Lawn is transforming into our learning playground and school community.”

She noted that this year’s setup included a reading nook and exhibits on space travel and dinosaur fossils.

The first couple also sat Monday for an interview with NBC’s “Today” and said that Easter for them on Sunday featuring putting some dollar bills in some plastic easter eggs and holding a hunt with their grandchildren. “We’re still missing one,” joked the first lady.

The president drew criticism from top conservatives, and the campaign of former President Donald Trump, who is now running to reclaim the White House, by proclaiming March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility ″ on a year when Easter also fell on the day.

But Biden offered a message of unity on Monday, saying the egg roll was taking place at “the people’s house.”

“We just like to open it up,” he told NBC of the White House. “It always makes me feel good to look out there and see, just average Americans, walking around and looking at what’s going around ’cause they own it.”

Biden was asked about his final campaign as he seeks his second term and said, “I just think people are so tired of the negativity that is propagated that they just want to get engaged.”

“They want to change things,” he said.

The first lady added that she’d been traveling the country campaigning and that “people are ready to go, and we’re going to win this.”

The first lady still teaches English and writing at a northern Virginia community college. She and President Biden did not host the egg roll during the first year of his administration in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it resumed the last two years.

The event dates to the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, who opened the White House lawn to children after they were kicked off the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.