Israel kills four 'IS-linked gunmen' in occupied Golan Heights

Israeli has claimed troops killed four gunmen belonging to an Islamic State group affiliate in southern Syria who had opened fire on soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights on Sunday.

Spokesman Peter Lerner told AFP the Israeli soldiers were targeted with machine gun fire and mortars from Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade militants.

Israeli troops replied with fire, before the air force bombed the vehicle carrying the gunmen identified as members of "Shuhada al-Yarmouk, an IS affiliate" using the Arabic name for the group.

The soldiers from the Golani brigade were beyond the fence but on territory under Israeli control, Lerner said.

He said none of them were wounded in the clash.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the war against Arab states in 1967 and later annexed it in a move viewed as illegal by the international community.

While avoiding being drawn into the internal Syrian conflict, Israel attacks Syrian military targets when fire, even unintentional, spills over the demarcation line.

The Israeli army holds the Syrian regime accountable for any fire from its territory, regardless of the source.