Six Iran fighters killed in Israel strike near Syrian capital

Tel Aviv: Israel fired several missiles early Monday in areas near the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian state news agency reported. An opposition war monitoring group said the strikes had killed six fighters in Iran.

The SANA news agency claims that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles, which they said were shot from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain, a war monitor with a network of activists on the ground, said the unique positions of the fourth division of the Syrian army hit the mountains near the highway connecting Damascus with the Lebanese capital Beirut. It said another strike had hit Syrian army positions in Kisweh, just south of Damascus.

The observatory said that of the six killed fighters backed by Iran, four were near the Damascus-Beirut highway, and two were in Kisweh. Gun depots have also been hit in both areas, he added.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes over the years against military targets related to Iran but rarely recognizes such operations.

Israel regards the Iranian fortification at its northern border as a red line and has repeatedly hit Iran-linked facilities and arms convoys destined for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

Monday’s strike was the first since February 3, when a Syrian military official said Israel fired surface-to-surface missiles at targets in southern Syria, causing only material damage.