War monitor says Israel strikes Syria weapons depot

BEIRUT — A war monitor said Israeli strikes on Syria early on Sunday targeted at least two sites in Damascus province including a weapons depot, while state media said a soldier was wounded in the attack.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, mainly targeting Iran-backed forces including fighters from Lebanon's Hizbollah movement as well as Syrian army positions.

The strikes have increased since Israel's war with Hamas, a Hizbollah ally, began on October 7.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "Israeli missiles" targeted a weapons depot belonging to the Syrian military and used by Hizbollah in Damascus province's Qalamun mountains.

Another site near an army battalion in the same area was also targeted, added the Britain-based observatory, reporting a fire at one of the sites.

State news agency SANA, carrying a statement from a military source, said that "the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack... targeting a number of points in the southern region", without specifying where.

It said a soldier was wounded in the attack and reported “material losses”, adding that air defence systems shot down some of the missiles.

Earlier this month, an Israeli strike killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard and two other people in Banias on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, reports said, in the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on the country.

This week, the Israeli forces said it had hit about 4,500 Hizbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months.

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