U.S. vows to protect personnel in Syria following air strikes

The United States on Friday said they would protect their personnel in Syria after the U.S. military carried out air strikes against Iran-backed forces in retaliation for an attack that killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. troops.

There was a new missile attack on another U.S. base in northeast Syria, according to reports, just one day after the attack on American forces in Syria, which Washington attributed to an Iranian-made drone.

According to John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, it was ineffective and there were no new American casualties.

Later on Friday, more locations in eastern Syria were the target of suspected American rocket attacks, but no injuries were reported, according to two local sources.

The violence could further aggravate already strained relations between Washington and Tehran, with efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers stalled, and Iranian drones being used by Russia against Ukraine.

“We’re going to work to protect our people and our facilities as best we can. It’s a dangerous environment,” Kirby told CNN.

The Pentagon had said U.S. F-15 jets on Thursday attacked two facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, said the U.S. strikes had killed eight pro-Iranian fighters.

Iran’s state Press TV said no Iranians had been killed and quoted local sources as saying the target was not an Iran-aligned military post, but that a rural development center and a grain center near a military airport had been hit.

Drone strike

The U.S. strikes were a response to a drone attack earlier on Thursday on a base near Hasakah in northeast Syria operated by a U.S.-led coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State.

Three service members and a contractor required medical evacuation to Iraq, while two wounded American troops were treated at the base. On Friday, the Pentagon said the injured personnel were in stable condition.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared that the defensive system on the base had failed.

The Pentagon said the U.S. military had a complete site picture in terms of radar, though one official told Reuters that troops on the ground did not appear to have had enough time to react to the drone.

A U.S. base at the Al-Omar oil field in Syria was attacked on Friday morning, according to the Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen and a security source.

It is not uncommon for Iranian-backed groups to fire missiles at U.S. bases in Syria after they are hit with air strikes.

U.S. forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration’s campaign against Islamic State, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria, most of them in the east.

U.S. troops have been attacked by Iranian-backed groups about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to the U.S. military.

While Islamic State has lost the swathes of Syria and Iraq it ruled over in 2014, sleeper cells still carry out hit-and-run attacks in desolate areas where neither the U.S.-led coalition nor the Syrian army exert full control.