BEIRUT, March 17, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A war monitor said Israeli strikes on Syria early 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 militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement as well as Syrian army positions.
 
The strikes have increased since Israel's war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah 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 army said it had hit about 4,500 Hezbollah 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.