Conflicts: US military attacks targets in Syria after the death of US citizens
conflicts
US military strikes targets in Syria after US citizen dies
After the killing of a US citizen in a suspected Iranian drone attack, US President Joe Biden reacted immediately. photo
© Susan Walsh/AP
The US troops stationed in Syria are primarily intended to support the fight against the terrorist militia IS. US President Biden reacted immediately to a suspected Iranian attack.
After a US citizen was killed in a drone attack in… Syria the US military has attacked targets of Iranian Revolutionary Guards allies there. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he approved the airstrikes in the east of the country on instructions from US President Joe Biden. According to human rights activists on Friday, at least eleven fighters from a militia allied with Iran were killed.
At the presumably Iranian drone attack At a military base near Al-Hassaka in the northeast, a US military contractor was killed and another contractor and five US soldiers were injured, the Pentagon said. According to the intelligence services, the drone was of “Iranian origin”.
A short time later it responded US military with several airstrikes in eastern Syria. The aim was to set up groups “that are in contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” Austin said. The “precision strikes” are intended to ensure the protection and defense of US troops. “No group can attack our troops with impunity,” Austin said.
A military confrontation with the Iran According to the communications director of the National Security Council, John Kirby, the USA does not want to. “We don’t want a war with Iran,” Kirby told CNN on Friday.
Six militiamen killed
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory, which has been documenting the violence in Syria since 2011, the US attacks on Friday night were aimed at targets in and around Dair as-Saur. Among other things, six militiamen were killed in attacks on a weapons depot. In addition, troops from the US-led coalition arrested several people in the vicinity of the attacked military base.
US troops were sent to Syria in 2015 to help fight the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia. Around 900 US soldiers are currently stationed there fighting IS, most of them in the east of the country. They are there “to defeat IS,” he said kirby. He acknowledged that IS continues to pose a threat in the region. It’s a dangerous environment, Kirby said, and ISIS is still able to launch attacks.
The IS had controlled large areas in Syria and neighboring Iraq. Despite the military victory over IS announced in 2019, its cells are still active in the country and carry out attacks. Last year, IS claimed about 280 attacks in Syria.
Since taking office, US President Biden has repeatedly attacked targets of militias loyal to Iran in Syria. Biden and the US military spoke of retaliation for attacks against US forces in Iraq in the attacks in August 2022 and June 2021.
Alongside Russia, Iran is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most important ally in the civil war. His government controls about two-thirds of the fragmented country, including most of the larger cities including the capital Damascus.
