Syrian regime says 15 killed in twin Israeli strikes on Damascus

The Syrian regime has said that 15 people were killed in twin Israeli airstrikes on the Mazzeh district of Damascus on Thursday.

"The Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan (Heights), targeting residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus and the Qudsaya area in the Damascus countryside, killing 15 people and injuring 16 others," the regime's defence ministry said, adding that the toll was preliminary and could rise.

A war monitor previously said an Israeli strike on an apartment killed four.

Israeli strikes on Syria have intensified recently, including in areas near the border with neighbouring Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out heavy air raids saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites.

"Four people were killed in the Israeli strike on an apartment in Mazzeh, Damascus, with another Israeli strike hitting" a residential building in Qudsaya, Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights, told AFP.

The Mazzeh neighbourhood, home to embassies, United Nations offices and security headquarters has been the target of previous strikes blamed on Israel.

Qudsya is located on the outskirts of Damascus.

The Observatory, with a network of sources inside Syria, reported "massive destruction to residential buildings and fire breaking out" at the sites of the strikes.

Israeli army radio said the targets of the attack in Damascus were assets and the headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

Syrian state media said an unspecified number of victims were killed in an "Israeli aggression" on "two residential buildings in the areas of Mazzeh and Qudsaya".

The official SANA news agency also published video footage of smoke covering a street.

Last month, Syria's defence ministry said two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Mazzeh district.

Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been among the Syrian government's most important allies in the country's civil war that began in 2011.

Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence.