By Oyintari Ben
Following a drone attack that killed a US contractor, the US has launched airstrikes against Iran-linked organisations in eastern Syria, according to the US defence chief.
According to a monitoring organisation, eight pro-Iran fighters were slain.
The drone attack, which US intelligence claimed was “of Iranian origin,” occurred on Thursday night, according to defence sources, who also confirmed that airstrikes occurred simultaneously.
Previous attacks on US outposts in northeast Syria prompted airstrikes by the US in retaliation.
Following rocket assaults on US forces in August of last year, the US targeted installations in eastern Syria that it claimed were connected to Iran’s most potent military force, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).
According to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, President Joe Biden ordered the airstrikes on Thursday night “in response to… [the drone] attack and a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC.”
He claimed they had targeted “facilities used by groups affiliated with… The IRGC.”
According to the US Defence Department, the drone struck a maintenance facility on a coalition base close to Hasakah earlier in the day, killing the contractor and injuring five US service members and a second contractor.
Eight Iranian-backed militias, claimed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, were killed in the airstrikes, which the monitoring organisation said were directed towards Deir al-Zour city and the towns of al-Bukamal and al-Mayadeen.
Iran has remained silent.
As part of the US-led international coalition fighting the jihadist group Islamic State, around 900 US troops are now operating out of locations in southern and eastern Syria without the consent of the Syrian government. (IS).
They are entrusted with preventing a rebirth of IS, whose militants formerly held swathes of territory in Syria until being ousted in 2019 due to various assaults undertaken by pro-government troops backed by Iran and Russia’s US-backed Kurdish and Arab militia fighters.
Since the civil conflict broke out in 2011, the IRGC has established a sizable presence in Syria, sending hundreds of Iranian troops to assist President Bashar al-Assad’s army and arm and train thousands more militiamen.
