Syria says four soldiers killed in Israeli missile strike near Damascus

Four Syrian soldiers were killed and three wounded early on Wednesday in an Israeli missile attack on positions near Damascus, Syria's defence ministry said.

The strike also caused material damage, it added in a statement posted on Facebook, reports Reuters.

Earlier, the Syrian state news agency said the missiles were launched from Tiberias, adding that most of them were shot down by Syrian air defences.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment on the reported strike.

For several years, Israel has been mounting attacks on what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, have put down a presence since deploying to help President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war which broke out in 2011.