Cairo: One Syrian soldier was killed and three others injured in a new Israeli attack near the capital Damascus, the official Syrian news agency reported today.
The rocket attack mounted early Wednesday targeted an air defence facility in rural Damascus, it added.
The agency said that the Syrian air defence systems had intercepted “some rockets” that also caused material damage.
The Israeli strikes destroyed missile warehouses belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and Iran-allied militias in the area of Al Zabadani country north west of Damascus, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The area is a Hezbollah hub for transferring weaponry into neighbouring Lebanon, according to the monitor.
The attack also targeted a Syrian regime air defence battalion in the area, killing one soldier and injuring five others, the observatory added.
The attack was the second by Israel inside war-torn Syria in less than a week. Last Friday, Israel struck the area of Masyaf in Hama in central Syria, state media said at the time.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least six foreign militiamen aligned with Iran were killed in the December 26 airstrikes. The attack also destroyed facilities for manufacturing and storing rockets linked to Iran-allied militias in the area.
Iran and Hezbollah are major allies of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. In recent years, Israel has unleashed a string of airstrikes in Syria mainly targeting Iranian military facilities and allied militias there.