By Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com
An American contractor has been killed and five service members were wounded when an Iranian suicide drone struck a facility on a coalition base in northeast Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said.
In retaliation, President Biden ordered the U.S. Central Command forces to launch ‘precision airstrikes’ against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing 11 pro-Iran fighters.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the airstrikes against the IRGC, a wing of the Iranian military which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the US, were carried out by F-15 fighter jets.
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. ‘No group will strike our troops with impunity.’
Earlier on Thursday, a drone strike killed a US contractor and injured five service members, as well as another American contractor at a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near al-Hasakah in northeast Syria. They are said to be in a stable condition, the Washington Post reported, citing a senior military official.
The Defense Department said the intelligence community had determined the unmanned aerial vehicle was of Iranian origin.