Four civilians, including a toddler, were killed and 21 injured in Israeli missile strikes near Damascus late Sunday, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

An AFP correspondent in Damascus reported hearing loud explosions during the night.

The Syrian news agency said the missiles struck near Damascus and in Homs province.

"Our air defences confronted enemy missiles launched by Israeli warplanes (...) towards some of our positions in Homs and in the vicinity of Damascus," SANA said, quoting a Syrian military source.

No details were given on the positions.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the strikes hit several Iranian positions near Damascus and targeted a research centre and a military airport west of the city of Homs where the Hezbollah Shiite movement and Iranians are deployed.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the observatory chief, said the strikes injured some of these forces.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, targeting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the regime's allies Iran and Hezbollah.

Two Al-Qaeda-linked leaders killed in northwestern Syria
Beirut (AFP) June 30, 2019 - Two Al-Qaeda-linked rebel leaders were killed Sunday in a missile strike in Syria's jihadist-held northwest, a war monitor said.

They belonged to Hurras al-Deen, which maintains ties to the global jihadist network and fights alongside Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

HTS dominates most of Idlib province as well as parts of neighbouring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia.

"Two leaders were killed, one Tunisian and another Algerian, in a missile attack that targeted a meeting... in the western countryside of Aleppo," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Fourteen other fighters and a commander were wounded in the attack, it said, adding that the source and type of strike was unknown.

The greater Idlib area was supposed to be protected by a buffer zone under an September agreement between Russia and Turkey.

But backed by its ally Moscow, Damascus has since late April ramped up its bombardment of the region, home to some three million people -- nearly half of whom have been displaced from other parts of Syria.

That came after HTS seized most of Idlib at the start of the year.

Since its formation in 2014, the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group has also targeted jihadist leaders in Idlib, but the strikes have dropped off significantly since 2017.

Hurras al-Deen was established in February 2018 and has some 1,800 fighters, including non-Syrians, according to the Observatory.

Civilians among 15 dead in Israeli strikes in Syria: monitor
Beirut (AFP) July 1, 2019 - Israeli air strikes in Syria left nine mostly foreign pro-regime fighters and six civilians including three children dead, a Britain-based war monitor said Monday.

The raids near Damascus and in Homs province late Sunday killed the fighters, but it was not immediately clear exactly how the civilians died -- whether in the strikes or in the aftermath, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said the strikes hit several Iranian positions near Damascus and targeted a research centre and a military airport west of the city of Homs where the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and Iranians are deployed.

One of the pro-regime fighters killed was Syrian, while the rest were of other nationalities, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

State news agency SANA earlier said four civilians had been killed after its air defences responded to an Israeli attack.

"Our air defences confronted enemy missiles launched by Israeli warplanes... towards some of our positions in Homs and in the vicinity of Damascus," SANA said, quoting a Syrian military source.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, targeting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the regime's allies Iran and Hezbollah.

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