The Syrian air defenses have effectively responded to the Israeli missile strikes that targeted several military positions in Syria at dawn Thursday, destroying much of the missiles, according to state news agency SANA.  

Israeli missile strikes destroyed a radar station, an arms depot, and caused damage to several air defense battalions, killing three soldiers and wounding two others, the agency quoted the Syrian army as saying.

This "flagrant aggression" will only lead the Syrian army to achieve more in the battles on the terrorist groups across Syria, according to the army statement.  

The Syrian army, meanwhile, stressed determination to confront any attack with "full responsibility and decisiveness."

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the intense Israeli missile attacks targeted positions of the Syrian army, Hezbollah and the Iranians in different parts of Syria.

The UK-based watchdog group said the Israelis targeted the Syrian positions near the capital Damascus and its countryside, central Syria, and the southern province of Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Dumayr air base in the eastern part of Qalamoun region in the northern countryside of the capital Damascus is believed to have been hit, the group said, adding that the Israeli missiles fell near a position where Iranian fighters are stationed in that area.

The Israeli attack left big damages and losses in the offensive that started in the southern province of Quneitra and expanded to other Syrian areas.

The Israeli attack started when the Israelis on Wednesday evening targeted military positions in Quneitra, which pushed the Syrian side to shell Israeli military positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The cross-border tension expanded and the Israelis started shelling other military posts in Syria.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV released a report about the targeted Israeli sites in Golan Heights.

The targeted Israeli military sites are a military reconnaissance center, a position for border security, a military center for electronic jamming, a military center for spying on wireless and wired networks, a communication station, an observatory for precision weapons, a gunships heliport, the headquarters of the regional military command of brigade-810, the command center of the military battalion in Hermon, and the winter headquarters of the special snow unit, according to the report.

This tension comes a day after Israel targeted a Syrian military site in the Kisweh area in the southwestern countryside of Damascus, as activists said 15 fighters were killed, including eight Iranians.

Last month, the Israelis targeted two military sites in Syria where Iranian fighters were located, including the T-4 air base in central Syria.

The Israeli attack comes amid heightened tension with Iran, following last month's Israeli attacks on Syrian positions where Iranian military experts were located. It also comes after the United States announced its withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday.

It's the second large-scale missile strike on Syria since April when the United States and its Western allies launched a series of missile strikes on Syrian military positions in retaliation to allegations of chemical weapons use on a former rebel-held area east of Damascus.

But the confrontation with Israel early Thursday was long and more intense, reflecting the boiling tension between Israel on one side and Iran and Syria on the other.

Israel has repeatedly said it was not going to tolerate an Iranian military presence inside Syria and targeted several positions where Iranian fighters were believed to have been stationed in recent years.