Israeli strikes injure eight Syrian soldiers: ministry

The Syrian regime's defence ministry on Friday said eight soldiers had been injured in Israeli airstrikes near Damascus.

On Thursday night, "the Israeli enemy launched airstrikes from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a site near Damascus… injuring eight soldiers", the ministry said in a statement.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel had struck a government building in the Damascus countryside that has been used by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group since 2014.

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

But the strikes increased after Israel's war on Gaza began in October.

On 19 April, Israeli strikes targeted a Syrian army position in the country's south, the Syrian regime and the Observatory said, as US media reported Israel had hit Iran.

Overnight on 13 April, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Israel in an unprecedented attack that came in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus.

Syria's war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with the repression of anti-regime protests.