Syria: US air strikes in the east after contractor is killed
The US military said it carried out precision air strikes in eastern Syria in response to a drone strike that killed a US contractor and injured five US service personnel. A press release from Department of Defense he declared that the American contractor was killed and the others injured “after an unmanned aerial vehicle hit a maintenance structure in a Coalition base near Hasakah, in north-eastern Syria”. Another US contractor was also injured in the UAV attack, the Pentagon also stated.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he authorized “precision air strikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” The US Intelligence Community”assesses that the UAV is of Iranian originHundreds of American troops are in Syria as part of a coalition fighting against remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group and have frequently been the target of attacks by militia groups. US troops are backing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of Kurds in the area, which waged the battle that dislodged IS from the last shreds of its Syrian territory in 2019.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he authorized, at the direction of President Joe Biden, “precision air strikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” “The airstrikes were carried out in response to today’s attack and a number of recent attacks on coalition forces in Syria by IRGC-affiliated groups,” he added. “As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary steps to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing.Austin said.
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