A US contractor has been killed and 5 US service members injured in an Iranian drone strike in northeast Syria – prompting President Joe Biden to authorise retaliatory “precision airstrikes’ in opposition to Iran-aligned teams.
The drone struck a facility on a coalition base housing US personnel in northeast Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon introduced in a press release late on Thursday night time.
One contractor – an American citizen – died within the strike whereas 5 US service members and an extra US contractor have been additionally wounded.
The Pentagon stated that the intelligence group had decided the unmanned aerial car (UAV) “to be of Iranian origin”.
In response to the strike, Mr Biden gave the inexperienced mild for the Pentagon to launch a sequence of airstrikes on services in jap Syria utilized by teams affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin stated in a press release that the US had taken “proportionate and deliberate motion supposed to restrict the danger of escalation and minimise casualties”.
“The airstrikes have been carried out in response to at present’s assault in addition to a sequence of latest assaults in opposition to Coalition forces in Syria by teams affiliated with the IRGC,” he stated.
The DOD chief added: “As President Biden has made clear, we’ll take all crucial measures to defend our individuals and can all the time reply at a time and place of our selecting.
“No group will strike our troops with impunity.”
Commander of US Central Command Normal Erik Kurilla warned that the US is able to reply with extra strikes if there are extra assaults on American troops.
“We’re postured for scalable choices within the face of any extra Iranian assaults,” he stated.