On Thursday, an American contractor was killed and multiple U.S. troops injured during an Iranian drone attack in Syria. In response, President Biden ordered retaliatory strikes at Iranian arms depots in a nearby region which resulted in eight Iranian deaths. But it seems the President’s actions may be leading to a larger conflict, with reports coming in Friday that Iranian proxy forces have now launched a missile attack at U.S. bases in northeast Syria.
The Attack
On Friday a U.S. base southeast of the Syrian province of Der el-Zour was subject to at lease seven missile strikes but there are no known U.S. casualties. U.S. officials confirmed the new attack saying that there were “lots of rockets” fired. Some reports indicate the attack may have targeted U.S. assets near the Al-Omar oil field in northeast Syria.
According to USA Today:
Photos and reports on social media suggested at least one missile had missed the intended target, hitting homes in the region instead.
The attack came just hours after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that U.S. Central Command forces had retaliated for Thursday’s deadly drone attack with “precision airstrikes” against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Defense Department said the intelligence community had determined the unmanned aerial vehicle used in the Thursday attack was of Iranian origin.
Austin says the U.S. retaliatory strikes, “were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria”
“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin said. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”
