Israel targets army position in Syria: Ministry

Beirut: Israeli strikes on Friday targeted a Syrian army position in the country's south, Syria's government and a monitor said, as US media reported Israel had hits its arch-rival Iran.

In a statement, Syria's defence ministry said "the Israeli enemy carried out an attack using missiles... targeting our air defence sites in the southern region" and causing material damage.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel targeted an army radar position in the southern province of Daraa that had detected the entry of Israeli planes into Syria's airspace.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory, said the strikes took place "at a time when the Israeli air force was flying intensively over the Daraa region" without Syrian air defences taking any action.

The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of a civil war in its northern neighbour in 2011, targeting the army and Iran-backed fighters.

But the strikes have increased since Israel's war with Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7.