Israel hit Iranian positions in southern Syria for the first time since the downing of a Russian plane last September, various sources said Thursday.
The attacks came after Moscow supplied Damascus last month with an advanced S-300 air defense system, not yet believed to be in use, as Syrians still need to be trained on operating it.
The Israeli warplanes hit Thursday night Kisweh, near the Syrian capital.
The area south of Damascus has been targeted by alleged Israeli strikes in the past.
"Israeli forces bombarded for an hour positions in the southern and southwestern suburbs of Damascus, as well as in the south of Syria at the border of Quneitra province," the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman said, according to AFP.
On September 17, a Syrian S-200 surface-to-air missile shot down a Russian Il-20 plane during an Israeli attack in Syria’s Latakia, killing 15 Russian troops.
Sources in Damascus spoke Thursday about missiles fired on hostile targets over the Kisweh area and of downing them, while Russian sources reported hitting an Israeli warplane.
Separately, UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura expressed his regrets about a “missed opportunity" to help end the country's long conflict at talks held in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
“Envoy de Mistura deeply regrets that at a special meeting in Astana with the three Sochi co-conveners, there was no tangible progress in overcoming the 10-month stalemate on the composition of the constitutional committee,” a statement from his office said.
Speaking after the talks, Russia's Syria negotiator Aleksandr Lavrentyev said the committee was of utmost importance.
"I want to say that we are sufficiently close to our cherished goal," he added, without giving any date.
The Astana talks were launched last Wednesday, almost three months after a truce deal in Idlib was signed to end violence in Syria. However, the deal was lately violated by an alleged chemical attack in the regime-held city of Aleppo.
