Reports: Unidentified planes strike targets in eastern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) - Unidentified planes struck targets in Syria near the border with Israel on Friday, reports said, amid soaring tensions in the region between the U.S. and Iran.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the planes targeted positions belonging to pro-Iran militias in the Boukamal area, near the border with Israel. The Britain-based organization which documents the war in Syria through a network of activists on the ground said the planes struck among other targets weapons depots and vehicles belonging to the militias.

It reported several explosions in the border area. The Sound and picture, an activist collective in Syria's eastern Deir el-Zour area, said 'Å“unidentified planes" struck militia targets in Boukamal.

There was no immediate comment from Syria.

The U.S. carried out military strikes in the area on Dec. 29, killing 25 members of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia in retaliation to a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq that killed a U.S. contractor. The U.S. blamed that attack on a Iranian-backed Iraqi militia.

Israel has also struck Iran-backed militias in the area in the past.