Syrian rescue teams inspect the damage at the site of an alleged US-led coalition drone strike in the city of al-Bab, on the border with Türkiye, in Syria's northern Aleppo province, on Dec 20, 2022. The US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on Thursday night against groups who it blamed for a deadly drone attack that killed an American contractor, injured another and wounded five US troops earlier in the day, the Pentagon said. (PHOTO / AFP)
WASHINGTON – The US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on Thursday night against groups who it blamed for a deadly drone attack that killed an American contractor, injured another and wounded five US troops earlier in the day, the Pentagon said.
Both the attack on US personnel and the retaliation were disclosed by the Pentagon at the same time late on Thursday.
The attack against US personnel took place at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 pm (1038 GMT) on Thursday, it said.
Although US forces stationed in Syria have been targeted by drones before, fatalities are extremely rare.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the retaliatory strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden.
The drone attack on US personnel caused wounds that, for three services members and a contractor, required medical evacuation to Iraq, where the US-led coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State has medical facilities, the Pentagon said
"No group will strike our troops with impunity," Austin said in a statement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war in Syria, said the US strikes had left eight people dead in Syria.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the toll.
Repeated attacks
The drone attack on US personnel caused wounds that, for three services members and a contractor, required medical evacuation to Iraq, where the US-led coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State has medical facilities, the Pentagon said.
The other two wounded American troops were treated at the base in northeast Syria, it said.
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US troops have come under attack about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to Army General Erik Kurilla, who oversees US troops in the Middle East as the head of Central Command.
Deployments in Iraq have also come under drone and rocket attacks in recent years.
The attack came just weeks after the top US general, Mark Milley, visited northeast Syria to assess the mission against Islamic State and the risk to US personnel
Three drones targeted a US base in January in Syria's Al-Tanf region. The US military said two of the drones were shot down while the remaining drone hit the compound, injuring two members of the Syrian Free Army forces.
The attack came just weeks after the top US general, Mark Milley, visited northeast Syria to assess the mission against Islamic State and the risk to US personnel.
Asked by reporters traveling with him if he believed the deployment of roughly 900 US troops to Syria was worth the risk, Milley tied the mission to the security of the United States and its allies, saying: "If you think that that's important, then the answer is 'Yes.'"
"I happen to think that's important," Milley said.
The US deployment, which former president Donald Trump nearly ended in 2018 before softening his withdrawal plans, is a remnant of the larger global war against terrorism that had included once the war in Afghanistan and a far larger US military deployment to Iraq.
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While Islamic State has lost the swathes of Syria and Iraq it ruled over in 2014, sleeper cells still carry out hit-and-run attacks in desolate areas where neither the US-led coalition nor the Syrian army exert full control.
Thousands of other Islamic State fighters have been detained by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America's key ally in the country. American officials say Islamic State could still regenerate into a major threat.