File photo taken in Aleppo, Syria
A U.S. contractor was killed and five U.S. service members and one U.S. contractor were wounded Thursday when a suicide drone hit a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria just before 2 p.m. local time, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The intelligence community believes the drone to have been of Iranian origin, according to the statement. The U.S. retaliated with air strikes on Iranian-linked targets in the area.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “At the direction of President Biden, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).”
Two wounded service members were treated on site, while three others and the wounded U.S. contractor were evacuated to medical facilities in Iraq.
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