Warplanes hit Iraqi militia's border positions on Syrian oil, kill 8

Unidentified warplanes struck overnight the positions of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi fighters on the Syrian soil near the border between the two countries, killing eight of them, a war monitor reported Friday.

A weapon depot and military vehicles of the Hashd Shaabi came under attack, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The area where the group was targeted houses lots of Iran-backed fighters, the Britain-based watch dog said, adding drones, believed to be of the U.S. coalition, have been monitoring the area since the United States assassinated a week ago Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's al-Quds Forces, and Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis, head of the Hashd Shaabi forces.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Observatory, said the Iran-backed forces have redeployed after the assassination of Soleimani and al-Muhandis.