Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency identified the commander as Farhad Dabirian and said he was killed in the south Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab.

An Ontario court has ruled that a divorce granted in Syria to a couple who had not lived there in two decades will not be recognized in the province, in part because divorce proceedings in that country are unfair to women.

Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria on Wednesday, with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain.

In recent days, U.S. officials have said that Israeli strikes have also hit Iranian targets in Iraq.

The Israeli military said it struck Syrian artillery and aerial defense batteries in retaliation for Saturday's firing of two rockets at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory. We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory," Israel's military said in a statement.

The Russian military on Wednesday criticized an alleged Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital, saying it has endangered civilian flights.

"Our air defenses have intercepted a number of hostile targets near Damascus," Syrian state TV said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human rights, a UK-based war monitor, said however there had been firing near the airport.

The global chemical weapons watchdog says in an interim report on the suspected chemical attack in Syria's Douma last April that "various chlorinated organic chemicals" were found at the site