Air strikes hit positions of pro-Iranian forces and allied militias in eastern Syria overnight, killing 18 fighters, a war monitor said Monday. It was not clear who carried out the raids in the region of Albu Kamal near the border with Iraq, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based Observatory, which has a vast network of contacts across Syria, said "18 fighters were killed, but their nationalities have not yet been determined". Albu Kamal lies in Deir Ezzor province which covers much of Syria's remote eastern desert.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019