Israel confirmed Thursday it carried out an airstrike the night before in northern Syria while a war monitoring group said the attack killed an Iranian and six Iraqi fighters allied with President Bashar Assad's government forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the strike on Wednesday night targeted an Iranian weapons depot and also wounded several other fighters.

Syrian state media said the country's air defenses responded to an "Israeli air aggression'' targeting positions in an industrial area northeast of the city of Aleppo, causing material damage only.

The Israeli military does not usually comment on reports concerning its airstrikes in neighboring Syria though it has recently acknowledged striking Iranian targets in Syria.

Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz referred to the latest strike in an interview with Israel Radio on Thursday.

"According to sources, it's Israel,'' Katz said. "As the Syrians say and responded, it's Israel. According to what Iran knows, it's Israel.''

Iran is an ally of Damascus and has offered military advisers, sent militiamen and material support to help Assad's government forces in the eight-year civil war.

Israel considers Iran a national security threat and says it won't tolerate Iran's presence on its borders.