AMMAN: Israel early on Tuesday launched missiles at several military targets outside the Syrian capital Damascus resulting in some “material damage,” Syria’s defence ministry said.

Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli “missiles and shot down some of them,” the ministry added in a statement.

Iran has been a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s nearly 12-year-old conflict.

Its support for Damascus and the Lebanese group Hezbollah has drawn regular Israeli air strikes meant to curb Tehran’s extraterritorial military power.

Deadly strikes hit Gaza as Israel mulls truce talks position

Those strikes have ramped up in line with flaring regional tensions since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, with more than half a dozen Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers killed in suspected Israeli strikes on Syria since December.

As a result, the Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria and have planned to rely more on allied Shia to preserve their sway there, Reuters reported in February.