Syria’s foreign ministry has condemned a suspected Israeli air strike on an apartment building in Damascus that, it says, killed seven civilians.

The ministry said women and children were among the dead from Tuesday evening’s attack on the Mezzeh neighbourhood, which houses the Iranian embassy and other diplomatic facilities. Israel's military has not commented.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 13, including nine civilians and two members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is a key ally of Iran and Syria's government.

The UK-based monitoring group said the strike targeted an apartment frequented by leaders of Iran's "Axis of Resistance".

Syria’s state news agency, Sana, cited a military source as saying that the building was hit by three missiles launched by Israeli aircraft from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights.

Photographs from the scene showed emergency services personnel inspecting significant damage to apartments on the first, second and third floors.

"I was on my way home when the explosion happened and communications and electricity were cut off, so I could no longer contact my family," electrician Adel Habib, 61, who lives in the building, told AFP news agency.

"These were the longest five minutes of my life until I heard the voices of my wife, children and grandchildren."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights identified the civilians killed as a Yemeni doctor, his wife and their three children, as well as a woman and her child, a female doctor and a man.

Iran's embassy said no Iranian citizens were among the casualties.