Israeli strike near Damascus kills seven: war monitor

BEIRUT, LEBANON — An Israeli strike on an apartment belonging to the Lebanese Hizbollah group killed seven people Sunday in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus, a war monitor said.

"An Israeli strike killed seven people and wounded 14, including women and children, in the Sayyida Zeinab area," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP, revising an earlier toll of three dead.

The Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, earlier said that "the Israeli attack targeted (Hizbollah) figures in the building where Lebanese families and members of the movement live."

Syria's official SANA news agency reported an "Israeli aggression targeting a residential building in the Sayyida Zeinab" area, home to a major Shiite shrine, that killed and injured an unspecified number of people.

On Saturday, four pro-Iran fighters were among five people killed in Israeli strikes in north and northwest Syria, the Observatory reported.

Since Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and fighters including from Hizbollah.

The strikes have increased since Israel entered an all-out war with Hizbollah in Lebanon on September 23.

Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.