US forces carried out "precision airstrikes" in eastern Syria after a drone strike that killed one American and wounded six others, the Pentagon said Thursday evening (March 23rd).
The drone attack took place on Thursday at around 13:38 p.m. (10:38 GMT) on a maintenance facility at a base near Hasakah in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. U.S. intelligence considers the drone to be "of Iranian origin," the Pentagon added. The deceased is an American contractor, and the wounded are five soldiers and another contractor also American, according to the same source.
"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 Guard Corps," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in the statement. "The airstrikes were carried out in response to today's attack as well as a series of recent attacks on coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard Corps," he said.
Several hundred US troops are in Syria as part of a coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group. They are frequently targeted in militia attacks. U.S. troops are backing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds' de facto army in the region, which led the battle that dislodged IS from the last territory it controlled in Syria in 2019.
With AFP
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