![A US Air Force F-15 lands at an Air Force Base in the Arabian Gulf in 2017. The US military said that it had carried multiple air strikes on targets in Syria following a drone attack on a US near Hassakeh in northeastern Syria [File: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters]](https://mmnews.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/F-18.jpg)
WASHINGTON: The U.S. military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on Thursday night against allegedly Iran-aligned groups who it blamed for a deadly drone attack that killed an American contractor, injured another and wounded five U.S. troops earlier in the day, the Pentagon said.
Both the attack on U.S. personnel and the retaliation were disclosed by the Pentagon at the same time late on Thursday.
The attack against U.S. personnel took place at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. (1038 GMT) on Thursday, it said.
The U.S. intelligence community assessed that the one-way attack drone was Iranian in origin, the military said, a conclusion that could further aggravate already strained tensions between Washington and Tehran.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the retaliatory strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden and targeted facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
“The air strikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,” Austin said in a statement.
“No group will strike our troops with impunity.”
