ISRAELI air strikes killed at least five people and wounded 15 in a targeted attack on a residential district of the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier today.

Loud explosions were heard in the city centre and the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) reported that the country’s air defences were “confronting hostile targets in the sky around Damascus.”

In a statement, the Defence Ministry said: “The Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several areas in Damascus and its vicinity, including residential neighbourhoods.”

Sana, citing a military source, reported that five people had been killed, among them a soldier, and 15 civilians wounded by the air strikes, which also caused the “destruction of a number of residential buildings.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, confirmed the number killed and said that the sites were connected with Iranian militias and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said: “The strike on Sunday is the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital.”

Footage posted by state media showed a badly damaged 10-storey building that was reportedly the home of senior officials, security agencies and intelligence headquarters.

There was no immediate statement from Israel on the attack.

Today’s Israeli air strikes were the first since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6.

The last time that Damascus was attacked was on January 2, when the Syrian army reported that Israel’s military had fired missiles toward the international airport, killing two soldiers, wounding two others and putting the airport out of service.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges the operations.

However, Tel Aviv has acknowledged targeting bases of Iranian-allied militant organisations such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Syria’s government receives military support from Tehran and groups including Hezbollah, which are declared enemies of Israel.

Today’s attack took place amid a wider shadow war between Israel and Iran.

The attacks on airports in Damascus and the north-western city of Aleppo were reportedly motivated by Israeli fears that they were being used to bring Iranian weaponry into the country.

Syria is currently seeking to recover from the earthquake, which killed more than a combined total of 43,000 people in the country’s north and in southern Turkey.

International aid for Syria has been hampered by continuing sanctions imposed in connection with the ongoing war in the country.