JERUSALEM 

Israel early Sunday announced that its fighter jets had hit Iranian targets inside Syria.

“We just prevented a pending, large-scale attack of multiple killer drones on Israel by striking Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite Militia targets in Syria,” the Israeli army said on Twitter.

But Syria's official news agency SANA reported that the regime's air defense systems destroyed most of the Israeli missiles before they reached their targets.

Israel has carried out several airstrikes on Iranian targets in war-torn Syria, where Tehran is supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN officials.

*Busra Nur Bilgic Cakmak in Ankara contributed to this story.