Syrian state media reported that Israel carried out an air attack near Damascus, the second attack near the capital in the last two days.
Witnesses told Reuters news agency that they heard at least three big explosions over the city overnight.
According to a military source cited by state media, Israel fired “sprays of missiles” just after midnight. The source said Syrian air defences intercepted the missiles and shot down a number of them, causing some material damage. There were no details about casualties.
The attack hit “a site in the Damascus countryside”, but the source did not provide further details. Israel has been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that began in 2011.
Israel claims that it carries out these operations to prevent Iranian weapons from reaching Tehran-backed armed groups in Syria. According to a tally by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor with sources on the ground, there have been at least six attacks in March alone.
On Thursday, Syrian state media reported that an Israeli missile attack near Damascus had wounded two soldiers.
Syria’s civil war has led to the deaths of nearly half a million people, with about half of the country’s pre-war population forced from their homes.