At least five people have been killed, 15 wounded and several residential buildings damaged in Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital Damascus, Syrian state media reported.

The rare, targeted strike damaged several buildings in the densely populated district close to Omayyad square in the heart of the capital, where multi-storey security buildings are located within residential areas.

Israel's military declined to comment on the strike when approached by Reuters news agency. It was not immediately clear whether the strike was aimed at a specific individual.

Loud explosions were heard over a central area of the capital around 12.30 am (2130 GMT Saturday), and the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that Syrian air defences were “confronting hostile targets in the sky around Damascus”.

Citing a military source, SANA reported that five people had been killed, among them a soldier, along with “destruction of a number of residential buildings”.

“It caused damage to several civilian homes and material damage to a number of neighbourhoods in Damascus and its vicinity,” the army said in a statement.

“The strike on Sunday is the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based group that has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Footage posted by state media showed that a 10-storey building was badly damaged in the attack, crushing the structure of its lower floors.

In 2008, Pro-Iran Hezbollah's top commander Imad Moughniyeh was killed in a bombing in Kafr Sousa, a heavily policed area where residents say several Iranian security agencies are located, including a major cultural centre.

For almost a decade, Israel has been carrying out air strikes against suspected Iranian-sponsored weapons transfers and personnel deployments in next-door Syria. Israeli officials have rarely acknowledged responsibility for specific operations.

Image source: Reuters