The targets of the US air strikes were facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on Thursday night against Iran-aligned groups who it blamed for a deadly drone attack that killed an American contractor, injured another and wounded five US troops earlier in the day, the Pentagon said. Both the attack on US personnel and the retaliation were disclosed by the Pentagon at the same time late on Thursday. The attack against US personnel took place at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1.38pm on Thursday, it said. The US intelligence community assessed that the one-way attack drone was Iranian in origin, the military said, a conclusion that could further aggravate already strained tensions between Washington and Tehran. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the retaliatory strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden and targeted facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “The air strikes 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,” Austin said in a statement. China wraps up navy drills with Russia, Iran in Gulf of Oman “No group will strike our troops with impunity.
