ISRAELI air strikes hit areas around Damascus early today, killing at least four Syrian soldiers.

Syrian state television, citing a military source, reported that four more soldiers had been wounded and that the strikes had caused “some material damage.”

The military source said: “At about 2.20 in the morning today, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, targeting some points in the vicinity of the city of Damascus.”

Syrian air defences intercepted the Israeli missiles and shot down some of them, the source added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitor, said the strikes had targeted their weapons, munitions warehouses and positions of Iranian-backed militias around Damascus. 

At least six people were killed, and seven others wounded, the observatory said, adding that the air strikes were the 22nd Israeli military attack on Syria this year.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on what it describes as Iranian-linked targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely admits responsibility.

Tel Aviv’s forces have also targeted the international airports of Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo several times over the past few years, often putting them out of service.