US Strikes Iran-Backed Facilities in Syria After Drone Kills American

by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON( Reuters) On Thursday night, the U.S. army launched numerous airstrikes in Syria against Iran-aligned organizations that it blamed for a helicopter attack that killed an American company, injured another, and injured five American soldiers, according to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon simultaneously revealed the attack on American personnel and the retribution late on Thursday.

At around 1:38 p.m.( 1038 GMT ) on Thursday, a coalition base close to Hasakah in northeast Syria was the target of the attack on American personnel, according to the report.

According to the military, the U.S. intelligence community determined that the one-way attack drone was Persian in origin, which could exacerbate also tense ties between Washington and Tehran.

Drones have previously targeted U.S. soldiers stationed in Syria, but fatalities are highly uncommon.

The retaliatory strikes, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, were carried out at President Joe Biden’s direction and targeted facilities used by organizations connected to Iran of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps( IRGC ).

According to Austin, the air attacks were carried out in response to today’s episode as well as a number of recent attacks by IRGC-affiliated groups against Coalition soldiers in Syria.

” No class will attack our forces without consequence.”

Eight pro-Iranian soldiers were killed in Syria as a result of U.S. strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which keeps an eye on the conflict there.

Reuters was unable to freely verify the death toll.

No Iranians were killed in the attack, according to Iran’s state news Television, which cited local sources as denying that the goal was an Egyptian military outpost but rather that a grain center and rural development center were hit.

The opposition groups reserve their right to respond to the American episode and will require mutual steps, according to a military base in Syria, which was reported to Press TV.

MANY Incidents

Three service members and a contractor were injured in the drone attack, necessitating medical evacuation to Iraq, where the U.S. – led coalition fighting the last of the Islamic State has medical facilities, according to the Pentagon. It continued,” The some two wounded British soldiers were treated at the center in east Syria.”

According to Army General Erik Kurilla, who serves as the head of Central Command and is in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Iranian-backed groups have attacked American troops about 78 years since the beginning of 2021.

In recent years, aircraft and spacecraft attacks have also targeted deployments in Iraq, where Iran also has influence.

Kurilla expressed concern about Iran’s ship of a in a testimony to the House Armed Services Committee earlier on Thursday.

He claimed that the Egyptian government currently controls the region’s largest and most potent unmanned aerial vehicle force.

In January, three drones attacked a U.S. center in the Al-Tanf region of Syria. Two members of the Arab Free Army forces were hurt when the remaining helicopter hit the compound, according to the U.S. military.

The complicated politics of Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad depends on support from Iran and Russia and views U.S. forces as colonists, are brought to light by American officials’ belief that aircraft and spacecraft incidents are being directed by an Iranian-backed army.

Mark Milley, the best U.S. general, visited north Syria just a few weeks prior to the attack to assess the mission against the Islamic State and the danger it posed to American soldiers.

Milley tied the journey to the stability of the United States and its allies when asked by reporters traveling with him if he thought the implementation of over 900 U.S. soldiers to Syria was worth the risk. He responded,” If you think that’s significant, then the answer is’ Yes.

Milley said,” I happen to think that’s key.”

The U.S. military implementation, which former President Donald Trump almost ended in 2018 before easing his departure options, is a holdover from the larger global war against violence that had previously included both the war in Afghanistan and an even larger American military presence in Iraq.

Tie cells continue to carry out hit-and-run attacks in lonely places where neither the U.S. led partnership nor the Palestinian army exert complete control, despite the fact that Islamic State has lost the portions of Syria and Iraq it ruled over in 2014.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America’s main alliance in the nation, have detained thousands of additional Islamic State soldiers. According to American officials, the Islamic State now poses a serious danger.

( Edited by Christian Schmollinger, Raju Gopalakrishnan, and Himani Sarkar; reported by Phil Stewart; Idrees Ali, Akriti Sharma; Dan Whitcomb ).

Published under: Iran