The Pentagon announced Thursday evening that U.S. forces conducted “precision airstrikes” in eastern Syria in a drone strike that killed one American and wounded six others.
The drone strike was carried out at 1:38 p.m. local time Thursday against a maintenance facility at a base near Hasakah in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. US intelligence services believe the drone is “of Iranian origin,” the Pentagon added. The deceased was an American contractor, and the injured were five soldiers and another contractor who was also American, the same source said.
“I have authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,” the statement said. “The airstrikes were in response to today’s attack and recent attacks on coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards,” he noted.
is often targeted
Several hundred US troops are in Syria as part of a coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group. They are often targeted in militant attacks. U.S. troops support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army in the region, which led the battle that drove IS from the last areas it controlled in Syria in 2019.
Two wounded soldiers were treated at the scene of the attack on Thursday, while three other soldiers and a US contractor were medically evacuated to Iraq, the Pentagon said.
“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all steps necessary to protect our fellow citizens and always fight back when and where we choose,” said Lloyd Austin. Joe Biden is in Canada to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address the Canadian Parliament on Friday.
In August 2022, the US president ordered similar retaliatory strikes after a coalition outpost in Syria’s oil-rich Deir Ezzor province was hit by multiple drones. The day Iranian state media announced the death of a Revolutionary Guard general, days earlier, “during a mission as military advisers in Syria.”
Iran says it has deployed its forces in Syria only as advisers at the invitation of Damascus. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is an ideological unit of the Iranian military and is labeled a terrorist group by Washington.
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