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The United States has carried out airstrikes on an Iran-backed group in Syria, after a US contractor was killed when a suspected Iranian-made drone attacked a coalition base in the country’s north-east.
Five US service members and one other US contractor were wounded in the attack on the coalition base on Thursday, the Pentagon said. Two of the wounded service members were treated on site, while three others and the injured contractor were transported to medical facilities in Iraq.
In a statement released later on Thursday, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said US Central Command forces retaliated against the attack with “precision airstrikes” against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The defence department said the intelligence community had determined the unmanned aerial vehicle used in the attack on the coalition base was of Iranian origin.
“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 Revolutionary Guard, Austin said.
Overnight, videos on social media purported to show explosions in Syria’s Deir Ez-Zor, a strategic province that borders Iraq and contains oilfields.
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Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area, which has also been targeted by suspected airstrikes by Israel in recent months, allegedly aimed at hitting Iranian supply routes.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been suspected of carrying out attacks with bomb-carrying drones across the wider Middle East.
There was no immediate reaction from Iran over the strikes, which come during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is not the first time that the US under President Joe Biden has struck Syria due to tensions with Iran. In February and June 2021, as well as August 2022, Biden launched attacks there.
US forces entered Syria in 2015, backing local forces in their fight against the Islamic State group. The US still maintains a base near Hasakah in north-east Syria, where Thursday’s drone strike happened. There are roughly 900 US troops, and even more contractors, in Syria.
“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin said. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”
