Damaascus, Dec 16 (AP) Syria's military said Israeli rockets hit army posts in the country's south early Thursday, killing one soldier and causing material damage.

State media quoted an unidentified military official as saying that rockets fired from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights activated Syrian air defenses and that most of the incoming missiles were intercepted. But one Syrian soldier was killed and there was damage to the area, the official added, without specifying where the missiles hit in southern Syria.

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Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled Syria in recent years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets the bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah group that has fighters deployed in Syria. It says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for the militias.

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Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's decade-old civil war.

Israel says the Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line, justifying its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)