An Israeli reconnaissance plane crashed and exploded early Sunday in the Lebanese Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in the first development of its kind in a decade, after Israel announced its bombing of "Iranian targets" in Damascus.

Israel has remained silent on the news of the two planes, and the Israeli military said it did not comment on outside reports.

A Hizbollah official told Reuters the second drone caused damage when it crashed in a southern suburb near the party's media center.

Lebanon has complained to the United Nations because Israeli aircraft have regularly violated its airspace in recent years, and Israel has waged several wars against the party, most recently in 2006.

The crash came hours after the Israeli army said its planes had bombed Iranian forces and their militia near the Syrian capital Damascus.

Israel says its air force has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria against what it calls Iranian targets and arms transfers to Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks in Syria on Saturday thwarted an attack planned by Iran in Israel.

"The strike targeted the Quds Force and Shi'ite militias planning to strengthen plans for attacks against Israel," said Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus.

According to Al Jazeera correspondent that the Israeli government announced the convening of an emergency meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, following the Israeli bombing on southern Damascus.

For its part, Syrian television said that the air defenses confronted "hostile targets" in the skies of the capital Damascus.

The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted a Syrian military source as saying that the Syrian air defense media had detected late yesterday evening hostile targets coming from above the Golan towards Damascus area.

"The aggression was immediately dealt with efficiently," the source said, adding that "most of the hostile Israeli missiles were destroyed before reaching their targets."