Israeli strikes near Syria's Damascus kill three pro-regime fighters, monitor says

Israeli air strikes early on Wednesday near Syria's capital Damascus killed three fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime and wounded four others, a war monitor said.

Syrian state news agency SANA earlier reported two soldiers had been wounded in the overnight strikes. It quoted a military source as saying the bombing targeted "certain positions in the vicinity of Damascus".

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the targets included warehouses used by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

The non-government monitoring group, which has a vast network of sources in the war-torn country, said the strikes also targeted positions of the Syrian army's elite Fourth Division near the airport in the town of Dimas.

One Syrian pro-regime fighter and two foreign, Iran-affiliated fighters were killed in the strikes, the SOHR said.

SANA earlier said most of the missiles had been intercepted by Syrian air defence systems, while the SOHR reported the raid had caused fires.

SOHR said the air attacks marked the 20th time Israel has struck targets in Syria so far this year.

While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its archfoe Iran to expand its footprint there.

Tehran has provided the Assad regime with military assistance in order to help the regime regain control of most of the territory once held by rebel groups amid the years-long conflict. Some of those Iranians stationed in Syria have been killed in Israeli strikes.

The Syrian war, which has killed at least 500,000 people, began in 2011 when Assad brutally cracked down on peaceful protesters.