WashingtonA US contractor was killed and another contractor and five US service members were injured when a self-destructing drone struck a maintenance facility at a coalition base in northeast Syria yesterday, Thursday, the Pentagon said in a statement.
US intelligence analysts concluded the drone was of “Iranian origin,” according to the Pentagon statement, which said the strike took place near Hasaka at 1:38 p.m. local time.
In response, at the direction of President Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said he ordered airstrikes against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
“The airstrikes were carried out in response to today’s attack, as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,” Austin said in a statement released last night. .
“These precision strikes are intended to protect and defend US personnel,” the statement said. “The United States took deliberate and proportionate steps designed to limit the risk of escalation of violence and minimize casualties.”
US Air Force F-15E fighter jets attacked an ammunition warehouse, a control building and an intelligence-gathering site, two senior US military officials said.
US airstrikes killed eight pro-Iranian fighters in eastern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group in Britain that tracks the conflict through contacts in Syria.
“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary steps to defend our people and we will always respond at the time and place we choose,” Austin said. “No group will attack our troops with impunity.”
