Beirut - (AFP) - Four members loyal to Iran were killed in the Israeli bombardment that targeted, after midnight, Wednesday, Thursday, points in the vicinity of Damascus , according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

And the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced in a statement at night, quoting a military source, that "at about 00:30 in the morning today, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Palestinian territories, targeting some points in the vicinity of the city of Damascus."

"Our air defenses intercepted the aggression's missiles and shot down some of them, and the losses were limited to material," it added, without clarifying what the targeted sites were.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in turn, reported that the Israeli strikes targeted "weapons and ammunition depots and headquarters of Iranian-backed militias a few kilometers from Damascus International Airport," noting that the bombing killed four fighters loyal to Iran.

This is the third strikes of its kind within a week.

On Friday, Israeli air strikes targeted points in the vicinity of Damascus, and were repeated again on Monday during the day, resulting in the injury of one soldier.

Over the past years, Israel launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting Syrian army sites and Iranian and Hezbollah targets.

Israel rarely confirms the implementation of strikes in Syria, but it repeats that it will continue to confront what it describes as Iran's attempts to consolidate its military presence in Syria.

Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict since 2011, which has killed about half a million people, caused massive damage to infrastructure, and led to the displacement of millions of people inside and outside the country.