Syria state media says Israeli planes attack targets near Damascus

Israeli warplanes attacked unspecified targets near Damascus, the Syrian capital, with missiles on Tuesday and injured three Syrian soldiers, Syrian state media quoted a military source as saying.

"Our air defenses confronted hostile missiles launched by Israeli warplanes from above the Lebanese territories and downed most of them before reaching their targets," the military source said.

An arms depot was hit and three soldiers were injured due to the attack, the source added.

The nature of the Israeli missiles targets was unclear.

Syrian state media reported earlier in the evening downing several "hostile targets" near Damascus.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the reports.

"An IDF aerial defense system activated in response to an anti-aircraft missile launched from Syria," the official Israeli army Twitter account later said.

Lebanese state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes performed mock raids above southern Lebanon. During the more than seven-year conflict in neighboring Syria, Israel has grown deeply alarmed by the expanding clout of its arch-enemy Iran – a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel's air force has struck scores of targets it describes as Iranian deployments or arms transfers to Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in the war.

(Top image: Smoke rises near a mountain from Damascus countryside, Syria, December 25, 2018.