The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says three people have been killed after Israeli strikes targeted Iranian bases and weapon depots on the outskirts of capital Damascus.

The war monitor said on Friday the Israeli surface-to-surface missiles were fired from the Golan heights and that the three killed were officers while four other members of the air defense crews were wounded.

According to the observatory, a fire broke out at one of the Iranian positions near the Damascus airport, where ambulances were seen rushing to the site of the strikes.

Syria's official news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that the Syrian air defenses intercepted “hostile targets” as "The Israeli enemy carried out an aggression... that led to the death of three martyrs and some material losses".

The observatory claims the Friday strike follows one on May 13 that killed five people in central Syria, and another one near Damascus on April 27 which killed 10 combatants, among them six Syrian soldiers.

Last month, Israel allegedly carried out three strikes in Syria. In March, an Israeli attack over Damascus killed two officers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Israel’s military does not usually comment on specific strikes in Syria but has acknowledged that it has conducted hundreds of attacks against forces under Iranian command in Syria to prevent the Islamic Republic from accumulating weapons and entrenching itself further in the war-torn country.

Earlier in the month, The Moscow Times, an independent Dutch-based paper, reported that while Russia has begun pulling out its troops from Syria to bolster forces in Ukraine, Iran forces and Lebanese group Hezbollah have reportedly taken over its bases.