Confirmed: IDF strikes targets in Syria after rockets hit Israel's Golan Heights

In a rare admission regarding its military operations, Israel confirmed on Wednesday that its Air Force fighter jets struck several positions belonging to the Syrian Army near the town of Daraa in southern Syria overnight, in response to a rocket attack on the Golan Heights.

Three rockets were launched from Syria at the southern Golan Heights on Tuesday, falling in open areas without causing injuries or significant damage.

The strike followed another alleged Israeli strike near the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, which killed several Hezbollah members and possibly, members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Several contradicting reports were issued regarding the incident, with most agreeing that Hezbollah members were eliminated. However, it is unclear if Iranian IRGC members were also among the victims.

The strikes hit near the south of Damascus, between Sayda Zainab and Aqraba, and eliminated several Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists and some Syrian citizens, according to Israel's Alma Research & Education Center.

Eight people were killed overall, including two Hezbollah terrorists and the bodyguard of an Iranian officer, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's Defense Ministry said that Israeli strikes south of the capital successfully eliminated a “number of Iranian advisers,” the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) at first reported, before retracting this and only claiming that several civilians were wounded.

In Iran, the Tasnim news agency, seen as close to the regime, said that one of the targets was a “military advisory center” but the Iranian ambassador in Syria later denied this, claiming that in fact, no Iranians had died.

The area affected by the strikes is a well-known stronghold of Iranian forces in Syria, a member of the Syrian opposition told 'The National' English news outlet out of the United Arab Emirates.

“There are no reliable indications who the dead were,” he said, adding that one of the buildings that was hit “is one of many in the southern suburbs that had fallen into Iranian hands.”

In recent years, the suburbs of Sayda Zainab and Aqraba have slowly been taken over by Iranian-affiliated groups, including Hezbollah and the IRGC, with several people tied to the Iranian state buying houses there, according to The National.

Israel has markedly stepped up its targeted strikes against Hezbollah and the IRGC in recent months, both in Lebanon and in Syria.

One of the most prominent victims of this policy was IRGC Brig.-Gen. Razi Mousavi, who was killed in Sayda Zainab by an alleged Israeli airstrike in December.