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American contractor killed by drone on American base in Syria
An American contractor was killed, and several U.S. service members were wounded in a drone attack on a military base in eastern Syria on Thursday. The attack was attributed to Iranian-backed militants, according to U.S. officials.
The Pentagon said the drone attack targeted the U.S.-led coalition base in the city of Al Omar, which is in Syria’s oil-rich Deir al-Zour province. The base, which is situated near Syria’s border with Iraq, is used by both U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) troops.
In response, the United States military launched airstrikes against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. The statement said the strikes were conducted to “protect and defend U.S. personnel” and was intended to “limit the risk of escalation and minimize casualties.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A suspected Iranian-affiliated drone strike in northeast Syria has killed a US contractor and wounded 5 US service members, the Pentagon said. <a href="https://t.co/BLBah8EGWU">https://t.co/BLBah8EGWU</a></p>— CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1639098866976034822?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The United States Air Force carried out the strikes using F-15E fighter jets, targeting a munitions warehouse, a control building, and an intelligence-collection site, according to senior U.S. military officials.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group in Britain that tracks the conflict through contacts in Syria, reported that eight pro-Iran fighters were killed in the U.S. airstrikes. The group’s director, Rami Abdurrahman, said six fighters were killed in the city of Deir Ezzor, where a weapons depot was targeted, and two other fighters were killed near the town of Bukamal and in the desert of Mayadeen. The U.S. military did not confirm the casualty reports.
The Pentagon did not identify the American contractor who was killed in the drone attack, pending notification of family. Two of the wounded service members were treated on-site, while the other three service members and the contractor were medically evacuated to coalition medical facilities in Iraq.
Iran has built increasingly sophisticated weapons-capable drones in recent years and has sold them commercially to other nations and stepped up their transfer to proxy groups. The drones are part of a rapidly evolving threat from Iranian proxies in Syria, with militia forces specialized in operating more sophisticated weaponry hitting some of the most sensitive American targets in attacks that evaded U.S. defenses.
The attack on the U.S. base in Al Omar is just the latest in a series of similar incidents. Iranian-backed militias have launched dozens of attacks at or near bases where U.S. troops are stationed in the past year alone.
The attacks are likely to stoke tensions with Iran, which Biden administration officials call the largest security threat in the Middle East. The Pentagon said that the airstrikes were conducted in response to a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC.
The United States has been working with Kurdish fighters to keep pressure on Islamic State militants and ensure that detained fighters do not end up back on the battlefield. America still has more than 900 troops, and hundreds more contractors, in Syria.
The Biden administration has focused its attention on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leading to the counter-Islamic State military mission in Syria being a lower priority. However, the mission has received greater attention only when Iranian-backed militias or Islamic State militants attack the American troops stationed there.
