The US has army carried out a number of air strikes in Syria towards Iran-aligned teams it blames for a lethal drone assault that killed an American contractor, injured one other and wounded 5 US troops, the Pentagon says.
Each the assault on US personnel and the retaliation had been disclosed by the Pentagon on the similar time late on Thursday.
The assault towards US personnel came about at a coalition base close to Hasakah in northeast Syria at 1.38pm (1038 GMT) on Thursday, it mentioned.
The US intelligence group assessed that the one-way assault drone was Iranian in origin, the army mentioned, a conclusion that might additional worsen already strained tensions between Washington and Tehran.
US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned the retaliatory strikes had been carried out on the course of President Joe Biden and focused amenities utilized by teams affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
“The air strikes had been performed in response to at present’s assault in addition to a collection of current assaults towards Coalition forces in Syria by teams affiliated with the IRGC,” Austin mentioned in a press release.
‘No group will strike our troops’
“No group will strike our troops with impunity.”
The drone assault induced wounds that, for 3 service members and a contractor, required medical evacuation to Iraq, the place the US-led coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State has medical amenities, the army mentioned.
The opposite two wounded American troops had been handled on the base in northeast Syria, the Pentagon mentioned.
US troops have come below assault by Iranian-backed teams about 78 instances for the reason that starting of 2021, in keeping with Military Common Erik Kurilla, who oversees US troops within the Center East as the top of the Central Command.
Kurilla, testifying to the Home Armed Providers Committee earlier on Thursday, cautioned about Iran’s fleet of drones.
“The Iranian regime now holds the biggest and most succesful unmanned aerial car pressure within the area,” he mentioned.
Three drones focused a US base in January in Syria’s Al-Tanf area.
The US army mentioned two of the drones had been shot down whereas the remaining drone hit the compound, injuring two members of the Syrian Free Military forces.
The assault got here simply weeks after high US basic Mark Milley visited northeast Syria to evaluate the mission towards Islamic State and the danger to US personnel.
Requested by reporters touring with him if he believed the deployment of roughly 900 US troops to Syria was definitely worth the threat, Milley tied the mission to the safety of the US and its allies, saying: “When you suppose that that is essential, then the reply is ‘Sure’.”
“I occur to suppose that is essential,” Milley mentioned.
Whereas Islamic State is a shadow of the group that dominated greater than a 3rd of Syria and Iraq in a Caliphate declared in 2014, tons of of fighters are nonetheless camped in desolate areas the place neither the US-led coalition nor the Syrian military, with help from Russian and Iranian-backed militias, exert full management.
-AAP
