US Retaliates With Airstrikes in Syria After Iranian Drone Strike Kills US Contractor.
- U.S. CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla told senators Thursday that the Pentagon has seen an “increase recently in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian air force.”
The United States military carried out multiple targeted airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, reportedly killing at least eight Iranians in retaliation for a drone strike by Iranian forces earlier in the day on a coalition base that killed one American.
The Defense Department claimed that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) crashed a UAV into a building near Hasakah in northeast Syria, leaving one US contractor dead and five US service members and another US contractor injured.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, two American strikes killed at least eight Iranian fighters. The first strike was on an arms depot in Harabesh, in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, which killed six Iranian-backed fighters.
The second strike was near the town of Mayadeen, where two more fighters were killed. The Observatory’s reporting is based on information from local Syrian contacts.
The UAV that crashed into the coalition base was assessed by US intelligence as being of Iranian origin, leading President Biden to authorize military retaliation, according to the Pentagon.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III confirmed the authorization, stating that the airstrikes were conducted in response to the day’s attack and a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC. He further added that the US would take all necessary measures to defend its people and respond at a time and place of its choosing.
General Michael Kurilla, the CENTCOM Commander, confirmed that the US military would retaliate against any such attacks on US personnel, saying that the US was “postured for scalable options in the face of any additional Iranian attacks.” He also extended his condolences to the family of the contractor who was killed and the wounded service members and contractors.
The US maintains troops in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, which benefits the security and stability of not only Syria but the entire region. However, the situation in the region remains tense, with Russia and China flexing their muscles in the Middle East.
President Biden has warned that allies matter in the region, indicating that the US would continue to take necessary measures to protect its interests and allies.
Leave a Reply