Ajit Karn
A war monitor reported on Friday that fourteen pro-Iran combatants were slain in US airstrikes on Syria in retaliation for a drone attack that killed one American and injured six others.
The Pentagon stated that a US contractor was slain and another US contractor and five US service members were injured when a kamikaze drone “of Iranian origin” struck a maintenance facility on a US-led coalition base near Hasakeh in northeastern Syria.
In response, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Thursday that, at the instruction of President Joe Biden, he had directed “precision air strikes in eastern Syria tonight against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
“The air strikes were conducted in response to today’s attack and a series of recent attacks by IRGC-affiliated groups against coalition forces in Syria,” Austin said.
The most recent US strikes occurred south and west of the Euphrates in the province of Deir Ezzor, south of the Euphrates in the province of Deir Ezzor, and south of the Euphrates in the province of Deir Ezzor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor with a vast network of sources on the ground, reported that 14 individuals, including nine Syrians, had been slain by US strikes.
“US strikes targeted a weapons depot within the city of Deir Ezzor, killing six pro-Iranian fighters. Two other fighters were killed by strikes targeting the Al-Mayadeen desert, and six others were killed near Albu Kamal,” said the director of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.
Abdel Rahman reported that on Friday morning, Iran-backed factions stationed near the city of Al-Mayadeen launched three missiles near a US base.
Two missiles struck Syria’s main oil field, Al-Omar, where the US base is located, without inflicting any damage, while a third missile struck a nearby civilian residence, he added.
The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson, Major John Moore, verified the attack to AFP.
“We can confirm that there was a rocket attack on Green Village in Syria,” he said, adding, “No casualties were reported.”
Captain Abigail Hammock, a second CENTCOM spokesperson, subsequently told AFP that “ten rockets were fired” at 6:05 a.m. (0605 GMT) in Syria.
She stated that the projectile that struck a civilian home landed approximately five kilometers (three miles) short of the base, causing significant damage and minor injuries to two women and two children.
Two civilians were injured, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a US ally that controls most of the country’s northeast.
US troops support the SDF, the de facto army of the Kurds in the region, which led the battle that dislodged the last remnants of ISIS in Syria in 2019.
– “Always react” –
As part of the international coalition combating Islamic State remnants, the United States deploys approximately 900 personnel across northeastern Syria in bases and outposts. (IS).
Militia groups have frequently targeted American personnel in their attacks.
According to the Pentagon, two of the wounded US service members were treated on-site, while the remaining three soldiers and one US contractor were medically evacuated to Iraq.
General Michael Kurilla, head of CENTCOM, stated, “We will always take all necessary measures to defend our people, and we will always respond at a time and place of our choosing.”
Biden was already in Canada when the strikes were announced, where he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In January, the US military reported that “three one-way attack drones” were launched against the coalition garrison at Al-Tanf in Syria, one of which breached its air defenses and injured two Syrian allies.
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The Observatory concluded that Iran-backed militants were likely responsible for the attack.
In August of last year, Biden authorized identical retaliatory strikes in the province of Deir Ezzor in response to drone attacks on a coalition outpost that did not result in any casualties.
This attack occurred on the same day that Iranian state media reported a Revolutionary Guard general was slain in Syria while serving as a military adviser.
Iran, a key ally of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, asserts that it has only deployed advisory forces in Syria at the request of Damascus.
