Beirut:

The Syrian government and an observer said an Israeli strike on Friday targeted a Syrian army position in the country’s south, and U.S. media reported that Israel had struck its archrival Iran.

The Syrian Defense Ministry said in a statement that “Israeli enemies used missiles … to launch an attack targeting our air defense bases in the southern region” and caused material damage.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel attacked an army radar position in the southern province of Daraa that detected an Israeli aircraft entering Syrian airspace.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the British Observatory, said that the attack occurred when “the Israeli air force flew intensively over the Daraa area” and that the Syrian air defense system did not take any action.

The Israeli military has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since civil war broke out in Syria’s northern neighbor in 2011, targeting both military and Iranian-backed militants.

But attacks have increased since war broke out between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

Rayan Maarouf, the head of the new anti-government website Suwayda24, told AFP earlier that a Syrian army radar position in Suwayda province had been attacked, but did not specify the source of the attack.

The latest attack came amid reports of explosions in central Iran earlier on Friday, with senior U.S. officials reporting an Israeli attack.

Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that three explosions occurred near a military base in Isfahan Province. The official Islamic Republic News Agency said “no major damage was caused”.

Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on April 13 in an unprecedented attack in retaliation for a deadly attack on its consulate in Damascus, and Israel warned it would hit back.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)