An Israeli missile struck near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in the early hours of Friday prompting a response from the country's air defences, state media reported.

Syrian state news agency SANA accused "the Zionist enemy" of targeting the outskirts of Aleppo with salvos of missiles at 1:30am, but said air defences had "intercepted most of the missiles".

They did not acknowledge what the target of the strikes had been.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes on Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces as well as government troops.

The Israeli army rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but did confirm on August 3 that it had used fighter jets, attack helicopters and other aircraft to hit military targets in southern Syria.

In recent weeks, presumed Israeli strikes have hit targets across government-held territory in Syria, from areas near the armistice line on the Golan Heights to the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border in the far east.

After nine years of civil war, the Syrian government and its allies now control most of the country but the northwest remains in rebel hands while the northeast is controlled by Kurdish forces.

MEE