A US contractor was killed and five US soldiers and another US contractor were injured when a suspected Iranian drone struck a facility at a coalition base in northeastern Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said.
In a statement released late Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US Central Command forces have been fighting back with “precision air strikes” on facilities in eastern Syria used by groups linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Defense Ministry said intelligence agencies determined the UAV was of Iranian origin.
The US attacks killed eight pro-Iran militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitoring group, said, according to Agence France-Presse. There was no immediate confirmation from the Pentagon.
“The airstrikes were carried out in response to today’s attack as well as a number of recent attacks on coalition forces in Syria,” Austin said, adding that he authorized the retaliatory strikes at the direction of President Biden.
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“As President Biden has made clear, we will take any action necessary to defend our people and always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin said. “No group will attack our troops with impunity.”
Austin said, “The United States has taken proportionate and deliberate action to limit the risk of escalation and minimize casualties.”
US Army General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the head of the American military’s Central Command, warned that American forces could launch additional strikes if necessary. “We are set for scalable options in the face of further Iranian attacks,” Kurilla said in a statement.
The Pentagon said two of the wounded soldiers received on-site treatment, while three others and the injured contractor were transported to medical facilities in Iraq.
Overnight, videos on social media appeared to show explosions in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, a strategic province bordering Iraq and containing oil fields.
Iran-backed militias and Syrian forces control the area, which has also been the subject of suspected Israeli airstrikes in recent months, allegedly targeting Iranian supply routes.
The map shows the city of Hasakah in the northeast corner of Syria, where the Pentagon said a suspected Iranian drone killed an American contractor and injured five US soldiers and another US contractor on March 23, 2023. The US retaliated with air strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria, the Pentagon said. Google Maps
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is suspected of conducting bomb-carrying drone attacks across the Middle East. In recent months, as part of its war against Kiev, Russia has begun using Iranian drones in its attacks on locations across Ukraine. Iran has denied responsibility for the attacks, although Western nations and experts have linked components in the drones to Tehran.
The attack and US response threaten to derail recent efforts in the region to de-escalate tensions as Saudi Arabia and Iran work towards reopening embassies in each other’s countries. The kingdom also recognized efforts to reopen its embassy in Syria, whose embattled President Bashar Assad was backed by Iran in his country’s long war.
Syria’s state news agency SANA did not initially confirm any strikes. Syria’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There was no immediate response from Iran to the strikes, which are taking place during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Qatar’s state news agency reported a phone call between its foreign minister and Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser. Doha has recently been an interlocutor between Iran and the US amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Around the same time, Qatar’s Foreign Minister also spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.
The US under Mr Biden has previously attacked Syria over tensions with Iran. He authorized attacks there in February and June 2021 and in August 2022.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in July 2022. Tom Williams /CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
US forces invaded Syria in 2015 and supported allied forces in their fight against IS. The US still maintains the base near Hasakah in northeastern Syria where Thursday’s drone strike took place. There are around 900 US troops and even more contractors in Syria, also in the north and further south and east.
Syria’s war began with the 2011 Arab Spring protests that shook the wider Middle East and toppled governments in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. It later turned into a regional proxy conflict, with Russia and Iran supporting Assad. The United Nations estimates that over 300,000 civilians were killed in the war. These figures do not include soldiers and insurgents killed in the conflict; Their number is believed to be in the tens of thousands.
Iran: Crisis in the Middle East
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