7 casualties, including US military base in Syria
Biden sends US fighter jets to retaliatory order
8 pro-Iranians killed… escalation
US-Iran fears direct clash in Syria
The US Department of Defense announced on the 23rd (local time) that at least one person was killed and six others injured after a self-destruct drone believed to be linked to Iran attacked a coalition base in Syria, including the US. Tensions in the Middle East are rising, with the US military carrying out retaliatory air strikes on Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities in Syria at the direction of US President Joe Biden, killing eight people.
“At around 1:38 p.m. local time, a U.S. contractor employee was killed when a drone crashed into a maintenance facility at a coalition base near Hasaka in northeastern Syria,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Six people were injured, including five US soldiers and one employee of another contractor.” About 900 US troops are currently stationed in Syria. Drone strikes against US troops are rather common, but it is unusual to have such a high number of casualties, according to Reuters.
The U.S. military pointed to Iran as behind the drone attack, saying that the drone was manufactured in Iran according to intelligence analysis.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said, “President Biden ordered a precision airstrike. He will do whatever is necessary to defend Americans.” The New York Times (NYT) and The Guardian reported that the U.S. military had launched F-15 fighter jets to strike command posts, ammunition depots, and intelligence bases used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), eight soldiers of pro-Iranian militants were killed in retaliatory US airstrikes.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. AP NewsisThe United States emphasized that the airstrike was a “prudent measure” considering the escalation of the war, but warned that it would escalate the airstrike if Iran launches an additional attack. “We are preparing scalable options in case of further Iranian aggression,” U.S. Central Forces Commander Michael Kurilah said in a statement. Al Jazeera reported on the 24th that the Iranian government did not immediately respond to the drone attack or the US retaliatory airstrike.
The incident comes amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran over Iran’s arms support and nuclear program. As a result, there are concerns that the Syrian civil war, which was a proxy war between the US and Israel versus Russia and Iran, could escalate into a direct conflict between the US and Iran.
Iran has supported the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been deployed in Syria to build a military base and organize a militia.
In February 2021, right after taking office, President Biden carried out an airstrike on an Iranian-linked base in Syria when a US military base in Iraq was attacked by a rocket attack by an Iranian-backed militia. In addition, in August of last year, when three US soldiers stationed in Syria were injured in an attack by an Iranian-backed armed group, they mobilized bombers to strike Iranian facilities in Syria.
Commander Kurilla said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the 23rd, “Iran-sponsored armed groups have attacked U.S. forces in the Middle East 78 times since 2021.” “Iran is using proxies to carry out drone and rocket attacks in Syria and Iraq to cover up its actions,” he said.
The Biden administration is paying attention to the fact that the airstrike took place two weeks after US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley’s blitz visit to Syria. At the time, the Iranian-backed Syrian government described it as an “illegal visit” and criticized it as “a blatant violation of sovereignty and unity.”
As China and Russia are expanding their influence in the Middle East, such as China mediating an agreement to restore relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, some observers say that this incident could accelerate the war of nerves between the US and China-Russia. Reuters reported, citing a Syrian source, that “Saudi Arabia (a US ally) has agreed to normalize relations with Syria following Iran.”
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.