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The U.S. carried out retaliatory airstrikes late Thursday after a suspected Iranian drone killed an American contractor and wounded at least five troops, the Pentagon said. A second U.S. contractor was also wounded in the drone attack on an American base outside the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah.
The Defense Department said in a statement the drone appeared to be of Iranian origin and U.S. Central Command said the attack was carried out by “groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).” U.S. officials did not name any specific group, but the Iran-backed militias Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada have launched repeated assaults on U.S. troops in both Syria and Iraq over the past several years.
But rarely have those attacks resulted in the death of American personnel. With Thursday’s attack having killed one American and wounded a half dozen others, the Pentagon responded quickly.
“At the direction of President 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,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement late Thursday evening. “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.
