US attacks Iranian positions in Syria after drone attack

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The U.S. military conducted retaliatory airstrikes in eastern Syria on Thursday against Iranian-backed groups after a deadly drone strike targeting a U.S. base in the region killed a U.S. contractor and injured six others, including five U.S. military service members, the Pentagon said.

"Earlier today, a U.S. contractor was killed and five U.S. service members and one additional U.S. contractor were wounded after a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Two of the wounded service members were treated on site, while the other four Americans were medically evacuated to Coalition medical facilities in Iraq, officials said.

U.S. intelligence assessed that the one-way attack drone that struck the base was Iranian in origin, according to the statement.

"At the direction of President [Joe] Biden, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)," Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement issued late Thursday.

"The airstrikes were conducted 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," he added.

The U.S. has about 900 troops in eastern Syria providing assistance to Syrian Kurdish forces in preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State.

In recent months, some of the bases have been the target of drone attacks that had, in most instances, not led to injuries or physical damage. Iranian-backed groups in Syria are believed to have been responsible for these attacks.

ockets hit another U.S. base in Syria on Friday following a U.S. strike on facilities controlled by Iranian-backed militia groups.

The rocket attacks fired at the Green Village base, located in the Al-Omar gas field of northeastern Syria, caused no casualties, according to Maj. John Moore, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

After carrying out the retaliatory strikes in response to the drone attack, CENTCOM’s commander, Gen. Michael Kurilla, said the U.S. will “always take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing.”

Iranian-backed groups have attacked U.S. troops in Syria at least 78 times since 2021, Kurilla told a House Armed Services Committee hearing this week.