QAMISHLI, Syria: US-backed Syrian fighters carried out a rare attack Monday in eastern Syria, striking at three posts manned by pro-government gunmen and claiming that they killed 18 of them in a major escalation near the border with Iraq. The renewed clashes in Syria’s eastern oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor came amid high tensions in the region following last month’s killings of a top commander of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group in Beirut and the political leader of the Palestinian Hamas group in Iran. Israel was blamed for both attacks, and Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to retaliate. The Syrian government, which is backed by Russia and Iran, has vowed for years to liberate eastern Syria from US forces who have been deployed in the area since 2015 to help fight Daesh. Monday’s attack by members of the Arab-led Deir Ezzor Military Council — part of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — came days after clashes and shelling between the SDF and pro-government gunmen left more than a dozen people dead. The Deir Ezzor Military Council said the new attack was in retaliation for government forces’ shelling the villages of Dahla and Jdaidet Bakkara last week that left at least 11 civilians dead. The group said it attacked the area where the shelling was launched.