BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes targeted Damascus on Saturday night, killing several people, reported the German Press AQgency (dpa).

State-run Syrian News Agency (SANA) and Syria TV reported that five people died in the strikes, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) put the death toll at 15. There were also several injuries.

Israel attacked positions of Iranian and Lebanese militias in the Kafr Souseh neighbourhood of Damascus, the SOHR said, adding that a rocket also hit a roundabout killing a woman.

Israeli missiles fired from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights targeted areas in Damascus and in the capital's surroundings including residential neighbourhoods, SANA reported, citing a military source. Four civilians and a soldier were killed and a further 15 civilians were injured, some seriously. Several houses were also reportedly destroyed.

Syrian television showed images of destroyed buildings and reported that the headquarters of Iranian militias in the capital had been hit. It was the heaviest air raid since the beginning of the year.

The information could not initially be independently verified. The Israeli military did not initially comment.

Israel regularly bombs targets in neighbouring Syria in an effort to prevent arch-rival Iran from expanding its influence there.

Iran and the allied Lebanese Hezbollah movement are major allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have fought since 2011 against rebels seeking to topple his regime.

--BERNAMA



TAGS: conflict, Syria, Israel