Syria says several of its soldiers killed in Israeli strikes near Damascus

Four Syrian soldiers were killed and three wounded early on Wednesday in an Israeli missile attacks on positions near Damascus, Syria's defence ministry said.

The strikes also caused material damage, it added in a statement posted on Facebook.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five Syrian soldiers were among nine people killed in what it described as the deadliest such raid this year.

The UK-based activist group said an ammunition depot and several positions linked to Iran's military presence in Syria were among the targets.

The other four killed belonged to Iran-backed militia, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding he could not verify their nationality.

He said at least five separate sites were targeted in the latest Israeli raid.

AFP correspondents in the Syrian capital said they heard loud explosions.

Earlier, the Syrian state news agency said the missiles were launched from Tiberias, adding that most of them were shot down by Syrian air defences.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment to AFP on the reported strikes.

For several years, Israel has been mounting attacks on what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, have put down a presence since deploying to help President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war which broke out in 2011.