The US Department of Defense announced late Thursday that it ordered airstrikes against targets in eastern Syria after a suspected Iranian drone struck a coalition base housing American forces.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted in a release issued by the Pentagon that the strikes were issued against "facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)."
"As President [Joe] Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing," Austin said in a quote accompanying the release. "No group will strike our troops with impunity."
The Pentagon statement detailed a American contractor was killed and that five US soldiers and one additional contractor had sustained injuries after a "one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria."
The initial incident is said to have occurred at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time. It was later assessed by US intelligence officials that the drone was of "Iranian origin." Additional details on how officials came to that conclusion were not made available.
It was further noted that two of the injured soldiers were treated "on site" as the four others were "medically evacuated to Coalition medical facilities in Iraq."
Airstrikes carried out by the US in Syria are not unprecedented. The Biden White House previously authorized retaliatory strikes in February 2021 and later in January and August 2022 following drone attacks against American positions.
The US has maintained a force of about 900 service members in Syria illegally, stationing troops in the war-torn nation's oil-rich northern provinces. American forces have remained in the country without the permission of Damascus nor a mandate from the UN Security council.
The Biden administration has largely kept quiet on US objectives in Syria. The US has maintained its forces throughout parts of Syria since 2016, mostly overseeing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces controlling Syria's oil depots.
Damascus has repeatedly blasted the US presence, describing it as an "occupation" with the objective of plundering Syria's oil and gas deposits.