The United States on Thursday bombed installations of groups close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards in eastern Syria in retaliation for the death of an Army contractor hours earlier in an attack with an Iranian-made drone, the Pentagon said in a statement.
"The strikes were carried out in response to today's attack, as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces by groups affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
The Pentagon did not provide further details about the bombings or say whether they caused casualties. He only defended that his actions were "proportionate and deliberate" to limit the risk of escalation.
The drone attack on Thursday also left five US soldiers and another contractor injured. The device hit a maintenance facility at a base of the international coalition fighting the jihadist group Islamic State, in northeastern Syria, at about 1:30 p.m. local time.
"As President (of the United States, Joe) Biden has already made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people. (...) No group will attack our troops with impunity," Austin added.
The international coalition is present in several points of the administrative demarcation controlled by its allies Democratic Syrian Forces (FSD), an armed alliance led by Kurds with which it collaborates in the fight against the remnants of the Islamic State.
The Euphrates River roughly divides Deir al Zur into two parts: one controlled by troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies; and another in the hands of Kurdish forces, with the presence of Washington and his associates.
Pro-Iranian militias supporting Damascus are deployed in government areas and occasionally attack US or coalition targets in the province, sometimes resulting in crossfire between the parties.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
