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.

The Israeli military carried out a warning strike against "extremists" preparing to attack members of the Druze minority in the Syrian town of Sahnaya, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday in a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz.

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.