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Israel has carried out an air attack on Syria’s Damascus International Airport and other positions south of the capital, killing five soldiers and causing material damage, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Syrian ministry of defence.

Syrian air defences intercepted the raid and managed to down most of the missiles, the ministry said in a statement early on Saturday.

There was no immediate confirmation whether the attack has affected flight operations at Damascus airport.

The defence ministry said on its website that the attack was launched at about 00:45am local time (21:45 GMT) with a missile fired from the air from the northeastern direction of Lake Tiberias, targeting the airport and other targets south of the city.

“The aggression led to the death of five soldiers and some material damage,” Syria’s official news agency Sana quoted a military source as saying.

Israel has intensified strikes on Syria’s airports on the grounds that it wants to disrupt Tehran’s increasing use of aerial supply routes to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah, regional diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.