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Photo Credit: Army Spc. Christopher Estrada

Soldiers watch from a distance as illumination mortar rounds light up the night sky as part of a training exercise near At-Tanf Garrison, Syria, June 22, 2020.

One US contractor was killed and five soldiers and another contractor were wounded Thursday afternoon after being hit by an Iranian “Kamikaze” drone, the Pentagon reported, stressing that “the intelligence community assesses the UAV to be of Iranian origin.”

Two of the wounded service members were treated on-site, and the three additional service members and the contractor were medically evacuated to Coalition medical facilities in Iraq.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III added that “at the direction of President Biden, I authorized US Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The airstrikes 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.”

According to Sec. Austin, the US took “proportionate and deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize casualties.” According to the NY Times, citing a senior US military official, the US attacked a munition warehouse, a control building, and an intelligence-collection site in Syrian territory.

“As President 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. No group will strike our troops with impunity,” said Secretary Austin, adding: “Our thoughts are with the family and colleagues of the contractor who was killed and with those who were wounded in the attack earlier today.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Friday that “an unknown plane targeted an ammunition depot in the Grain Center and the Rural Development Center opposite the officers’ housing in the Harabish neighborhood of Deir Ezzor city. Explosions also sounded in the village of Al-Jafra, near the city of Deir Ezzor. The bombing resulted in successive explosions in a weapons depot and large fires, while ambulances rushed to the target site, amid confirmed information about casualties.”

Head of the Central Command General Erik Kurilla noted that Iranian-backed militias attacked US troops 78 times since the beginning of 2021.