A Syrian flag flutters in Damascus, Syria on April 20, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hashisho.

i24 News – Air strikes by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Syria have killed four pro-Iranian fighters allied to the Damascus regime, a Britain-based war monitor said Friday.

Syrian state media earlier said its air defense system engaged “hostile targets” over the capital Damascus late on Thursday.

“The Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack … targeting positions near Damascus and around the city of Homs,” a military source told state news agency SANA.

“Our air defense responded to the missiles and shot most of them down.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli missiles had targeted “arms depots and military positions” belonging to Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, in the Qarah area in the northwest of Damascus province, near Homs province and the Lebanese border.

The strikes had killed four members of the Iran-backed group, but it was not immediately clear whether they were Syrian or Lebanese, the Britain-based war monitor said.

The Israeli army rarely acknowledges its strikes in Syria while regularly saying that it will not allow its neighbor to become a stronghold of its sworn enemy Iran.