Syria intercepts Israeli missiles over Damascus: state media

DAMASCUS: Syrian air defences shot down several Israeli missile strikes over the capital Damascus on Tuesday, state media reported.

"At 22:35 (2035 GMT) this evening the Israeli enemy carried out an aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights on some targets in the Damascus area," Syrian state news agency SANA cited a military source as saying.

"Our air defences intercepted the attack and shot down most of" the missiles, it said, adding there were no casualties.

AFP reporters heard explosions above the capital, which official media said were the air defences responding to the attack.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes had targeted two ammunition depots belonging to Iranian militias fighting on the side of the Damascus government just a few kilometres from the Damascus airport south of the capital.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out raids in Syria, mostly targeting Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces as well as Syrian government troops.

Israel rarely confirms strikes in Syria, but the Jewish state's army has said it hit about 50 targets in the war-torn country last year, without providing details.

In late February, Israeli air strikes targeted the area of Sayyida Zeinab south of Damascus, where Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Lebanese Hezbollah are present, the Observatory said, without reporting any casualties.