Initial reports from Syria claimed that Hezbollah militants were killed in the airstrikes.
Three Syrian soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded in alleged Israeli airstrikes that targeted sites near Damascus on Thursday night, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.
According to the Syrian Capital Voice news site, four strikes were carried out targeting sites belonging to the Syrian military and pro-Iranian militias near Damascus. According to the report, a temporary storage warehouse belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was targeted in the Iranian-built Colonel Haitham Suleiman Complex in the town of Hujeira south of Damascus.
Syrian journalist Nour Abo Hasan reported as well that one of the strikes hit the complex, causing casualties among Hezbollah militants. The journalist claimed that large numbers of casualties were transferred to the Imam Sadr Hospital in Set Zaynab, located nearby.
The opposition-affiliated Orient News reported that the airstrikes targeted a factory for the manufacture of drones in Set Zaynab and a gathering of Iranian militants nearby, killing at least 10 of the militants.
Photos reportedly from the scene showed an ambulance present and multiple structures destroyed.
“The IDF operated in Syria last night,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai told KAN Reshet Bet radio on Friday morning, despite Israeli officials usually remaining silent on specific airstrikes in Syria. “We continue to protect our security interests.”
Earlier on Thursday, Iran International reported that the Mossad had interrogated a senior IRGC official named Yadollah Khedmati who confessed his role in transferring weapons to Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Khedmati confirmed his role in the Logistics Wing of the IRGC and admitted that he had been in contact with Ali Asghar Nowrozi, an IRGC Quds Force official who has been identified by the IDF as responsible for transferring precision weapon components from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to the report.
The last alleged Israeli strike in Syria was over two weeks ago when a Syrian militant working with the Syrian Army was killed by an alleged drone strike in Quneitra in southwestern Syria.
The militant was identified as Farid Fouad Mustafa. The strike reportedly targeted a location west of Hader, near the Israeli border and the city of Majdal Shams.
Less than a week before that strike, two Syrian civilians were wounded in an alleged Israeli airstrike targeting sites near the coastal city of Tartus, the Syrian military said. Reports by opposition-affiliated media claimed that air-defense batteries from Iran were targeted in the strike.
In June, the Damascus International Airport was closed for weeks after alleged Israeli airstrikes destroyed the runways at the airport.