The official SANA news agency and the state broadcaster both reported that air defences opened fire on "enemy targets" to "confront" them, without giving further details.

SANA said "a number of enemy targets were downed" by the air defences.

"It's an Israeli raid," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

"Missiles fired from Israeli planes targeted... arms depots southwest and south of Damascus that belong to Hezbollah or Iranian forces," Abdel Rahman said.

Israel has carried out dozens of air strikes in neighbouring Syria against what it says are Iranian targets, many of them in the area south of Damascus.

At the end of November Syria said its air defences had targeted and downed a number of "hostile targets" over the Kisweh area south of Damascus.

In early December SANA and state television reported that Syrian air defences had opened fire near Damascus airport but later both state media outlets withdrew the report without explanation.