CAIRO/AMMAN (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike over the Golan Heights killed three Syrian military personnel early on Wednesday, Syria's state news agency SANA said.


Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a Twitter post on Wednesday that the targets were military sites in southern Lebanon related to Iran's Quds and the Syrian army.


Israel has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets in Syria and those of allied militias, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah. But President Bashar al-Assad’s government has never publicly acknowledged that there are Iranian forces in Syria.


Iran is supporting Assad's government in the Syrian civil war, but its presence in Syria is regarded as strategic threat by Israel.


Earlier on Wednesday, SANA reported that Syrian air defences intercepted "Israeli aggression" in the skies over the capital Damascus but later said the action had taken place in the southern area. Western intelligence sources say Israel’s stepped up strikes on Syria this year are part of a shadow war approved by Washington as part of a strategy to check Iran’s military reach.