Israel said it carried out a strike in Syria against "an extremist group" that attacked members of the Druze community, following through on a promise to defend the minority group as deadly sectarian violence spread near Damascus on Wednesday.

Israel says it carried out an attack in Syria on a group targeting members of a minority sect as a new round of clashes left at least 11 people dead.

Syria's small Druze community largely kept out of the country's long civil war but since president Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December it has found itself confronting the new Islamist-led government amid military intervention by Israel.