The US military has struck Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria, killing at least 22 fighters according to a war monitor, in what the Pentagon said was a message from the new administration after recent rocket attacks targeting US troops in Iraq.

Two Syrian shepherds were exchanged for an Israeli woman under a prisoner exchange deal on Thursday between the Jewish state and Syria mediated by Russia.

A Syrian military official said Israel fired surface and air missiles at targets in southern Syria late Wednesday, causing only material damage.

The official said the attacks prompted Syrian air defenses. The unnamed official said the Israeli attacks came in from over the Golan Heights but didn't identify what the target was.

Israeli air strikes on east Syria killed 57 regime forces and allied Iran-backed fighters, in the deadliest such strikes since the start of the conflict, a war monitoring group said Wednesday.

The overnight raids against arms depots and military positions killed at least 14 Syrian regime forces, 16 Iraqi militia fighters and 11 Afghan members of the pro-Iran Fatimid Brigade, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A car bomb near a vegetable market in northeastern Syria killed five people on Saturday in the Turkish-held border town of Ras al-Ain, a war monitor said.

Syria on Saturday lambasted the U.S. government for sanctions it has imposed on Damascus, following a U.N. special rapporteur's statement that called on Washington to remove unilateral sanctions against the war-torn country.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry described U.S. sanctions against the country as equal to "crimes against humanity" that impact the life of normal citizens as the country looks to rebuild after 10 years of civil war.

Many Syrians forced from their homes by their country's brutal, decade-old war are now shocked to discover that their family farms have been taken over by regime loyalists and cronies.

The Islamic State group killed nine Iran-trained Syrian fighters in an attack on one of their positions in eastern Syria on Thursday, a war monitor said.

The world can't forget the plight of Syrian refugees this winter despite the global upheaval caused by Covid-19, fantasy author Neil Gaiman said on Tuesday as he helped launch the UN refugee programme's cold weather appeal.

A Turkish soldier was killed in Turkish-controlled northern Syria on Thursday during clashes with Kurdish militia forces deemed "terrorists" by Ankara, the defence ministry tweeted.