DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The Syrian Arab News Agency said that four Syrian soldiers were killed and another wounded in an Israeli "air aggression" on some points in the coastal and central regions of Syria on Saturday morning.

The agency added that the Syrian air defenses responded to the attack, which came from over the Mediterranean, and also caused material losses.

The agency quoted a military source as saying that "at about six thirty in the morning on Saturday (0330 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from over the Mediterranean Sea, from the direction of Banias, targeting some points in the central and coastal region."

The Israeli army declined to comment.

Israel has launched attacks in Syria for years against what it describes as Iranian-backed forces deployed there during the conflict that began more than a decade ago.

Regional and intelligence sources say that Israel has intensified its attacks on airports and air bases in Syria in the past few months to disrupt Iran's increasing use of air supply lines to deliver weapons to its allies in Syria and Lebanon, including the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah.

Israeli missiles hit a major air base in the Homs region of Syria this month, killing two soldiers and wounding three. Military sources said that the Iranian air force used the air base, located in Shirat, recently.