How the US launched deadly strikes against Iran-backed forces that killed Americans in Syria

The US has traded strikes with Iranian-backed forces in Syria after a US contractor was killed by a drone attack.

An Iranian-made “kamikaze” drone hit a coalition site in Hasaka around 1:38 p.m. local time on Thursday, killing the American contractor and injuring five soldiers and another contractor.

Three soldiers and a contractor had to be evacuated to Iraq, while two injured American soldiers were treated at the base. On Friday, the Pentagon said the injured were in stable condition.

President Joe Biden has ordered “precision airstrikes” in retaliation against targets in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

Fourteen pro-Iranian fighters were killed when two US Air Force F-15E fighter jets launched airstrikes on three targets, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

US retaliatory strikes were carried out by two F-15E fighter jets and killed 14 fighters

Six were killed at an arms depot inside the town of Deir Ezzor, two near Al-Mayadeen and another six near Albu Kamal, according to the British base, which is gathering information from a network of sources in the field.

Military officials said the planes attacked an ammunition warehouse, a control building and an intelligence-gathering facility.

Iran-backed forces retaliated again on Friday morning, when fighters stationed near the town of Al-Mayadeen fired at least three missiles near a US base in Syria’s largest oilfield, Al- Omar.

Two reached the oilfield but caused no damage, while a third strayed approximately three miles from base and struck a civilian home “causing major damage and minor injuries to two women and two children”.

A spokesman for the US Army Central Command (CENTCOM) said there were “10 rockets fired…around 8:05 a.m.”.

Although it is not the first time that the United States and Iran have exchanged strikes in Syria, the attack and the American response threaten to upset recent efforts to defuse tensions throughout the Middle East, including the rival powers have taken steps towards detente in recent days after years of turmoil.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the US intelligence community determined the drone was of Iranian origin, but provided no other immediate evidence to support the claim.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III said he authorized the retaliatory strikes under President Joe Biden. US Air Force F-15E fighter jets hit an ammunition warehouse, a control building and an intelligence collection site

Videos uploaded overnight purporting to show explosions caused by US strikes

The drone hit a coalition base in the town of Hasaka in northeast Syria. The injured included five US military personnel and an American contractor.

Austin said the strikes were a response to the drone attack “as well as a series of recent attacks on coalition forces in Syria” by groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran relies on a network of proxy forces across the Middle East to counter the United States and Israel, its regional arch-enemy.

The United States has had forces in northeastern Syria since 2015, when it deployed as part of the fight against the Islamic State group, and maintains some 900 troops there, working with forces led by the Kurds who control about a third of Syria.