A U.S. contractor was killed and another was injured in a drone attack on Thursday, along with five U.S. troops, according to the Pentagon. In response, the U.S. military conducted several air strikes in Syria against groups aligned with Iran.
The Pentagon reported that the attack on U.S. personnel occurred at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at around 1:38 p.m. (10:38 GMT) on Thursday.
The United States intelligence community concluded that Iran was the manufacturer of the unidirectional attack drone.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the retaliatory strikes were ordered by President Joe Biden and struck targets belonging to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “No group will strike our troops with impunity,” he added.
Eight pro-Iranian fighters were killed in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war there.
Iranian state television reported that no Iranians were killed in the attack and cited local sources who said that the target was a rural development center and a grain center near a military airport.
