WashingtonThe United States launched airstrikes in eastern Syria against militant sites linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after a suspected Iranian drone killed an American contractor and wounded six other Americans, the Pentagon said.
The retaliatory strikes came hours after the self-destructing drone struck a maintenance facility at a coalition base in northeastern Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said in a statement. One US contractor was killed and another contractor and five US service members were injured.
US intelligence analysts concluded that the drone was of “Iranian origin”, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III responded by ordering airstrikes against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with the Guard Corps. Islamic Revolutionary of Iran, or IRGC.
“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.”
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.
