Israel strike on Syria kills 9 including Hezbollah commander — monitor

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel struck an apartment belonging to Hezbollah in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus on Sunday, killing nine people including a commander, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the dead was a Lebanese commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Syria.

Israel has increased strikes on Syria since an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon erupted on September 23.

Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based monitor, told AFP that the commander "was active in Syria and held Lebanese nationality". The man's name is not yet known.

The monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said that "nine people lost their lives -- four civilians (a woman and her three children) of Syrian nationality, and five others, including a Hezbollah commander."

It said the strike hit "an apartment in a building in the Sayyida Zeinab area" south of the Syrian capital.

According to the monitor, 14 others were wounded in the strike which "targeted individuals in an apartment inhabited by Lebanese families and Hezbollah members".

Some of thos killed in the strike "remain unidentified", the Observatory said.

Syria's official SANA news agency reported an "Israeli aggression targeting a residential building in the Sayyida Zeinab" area, home to a major Shiite shrine.

It later reported a death toll of "seven civilians, including children and women", and 20 wounded.

On Saturday, four pro-Iran fighters were among five people killed in Israeli strikes in north and northwest Syria, the Observatory reported.

Since Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and fighters including from Hezbollah.

Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.