DAMASCUS: Syria`s defence ministry said two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle on Monday afternoon in the Mazzeh district of Damascus, home to embassies and security headquarters.

The Mazzeh neighbourhood, where United Nations offices are also based, has been the target of other recent strikes blamed on Israel.

`At approximately 1717 (1417 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air strike targeting acivilian car` in Mazzeh, `killing two civilians and injuring three,` the ministry said in a statement.

It added that the attack caused `material damage to private property` nearby.

The official SANA news agency had earlier reported `a car explosion in one of the neighbourhoods` of Mazzeh, where a correspondent said a hotel was damaged and vehicles incinerated following the blast near Syria`s InformationMinistry.

Ambulances rushed to the site of the explosion where crowds gathered around the mangled fourwheel drive which was reduced to scraps of metal, the correspondent said.

In early April Iran blamed Israel for an air strike on the Iranian consular annex in Mazzeh that killed seven Revolutionary Guards and several other people.

Iran later that month retaliated with its first ever direct missile anddrone strike against Israel.

Earlier this month, the Syrian government said seven civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential and commercial building in Mazzeh.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor gave a higher toll of nine killed, five of them civilians including a child. It said the attack targeted a building used by Iran`s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.-AFP