London, Sep 9 (IANS): Warplanes on Monday struck positions of Iran-backed militias near Syria's border with Iraq, a London-based watchdog said on Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said at least 18 Iranian and pro-Iranian fighters were killed in the strikes, the BBC reported.

It was not clear who carried out the strikes in al-Hizam al-Akhdar, near the town of Albu Kamal.

Hours after the incident in Albu Kamal, a number of rockets were launched towards Israel from the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, but failed to hit Israeli territory, according to the Israeli military.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters had shot down an unmanned Israeli drone over southern Lebanon early on Monday and seized it.

The Israeli military said one of its drones "fell inside southern Lebanon during routine operations".

It did not give a reason, but said there was "no concern information could be taken from it".