US carries out multiple air strikes in Syria, retaliation

Syrian rescue teams inspect the damage at the site of an alleged US-led coalition drone strike in the city of Al-Bab, on the border with T rkiye, in Syria's northern Aleppo province, on December 20, 2022. The Pentagon said on Thursday that the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against groups that it blamed for a deadly drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded five US troops and killed an American contractor. PHOTO AFP WASHINGTON - The US military carried out several air strikes in Syria on Thursday night against groups that it blamed for the deadly drone attack that killed an American contractor, injured another and wounded five US troops earlier in the day, the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon released a report on the attack on US personnel and the retaliation at the same time on Thursday.

The attack against US personnel took place at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeastern Syria on Thursday at 1: 38 pm 1038 GMT.

The retaliatory strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Austin said that no group will strike our troops with impunity.

The military said that the drone attack caused wounds that required medical evacuation to Iraq for three services members and a contractor, which required medical evacuation to Iraq, where the US-led coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State has medical facilities.

The Pentagon said that the two wounded American troops were treated at the base in northeastern Syria.

The number of deaths and six wounded troops in Syria is very unusual, even though attempted drone attacks against US personnel in Syria are somewhat common.

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U.S. troops have come under attack about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to Army General Erik Kurilla, who oversees US troops in the Middle East as the head of Central Command.

Three drones targeted a US base in January in the Al-Tanf region of Syria. The US military said that two of the drones were shot down while the remaining drone hit the compound, injuring two members of the Syrian Free Army forces.

The attack came just weeks after the top US general, Mark Milley, visited northeast Syria to assess the mission against Islamic State and the risk to US personnel.

Milley tied the mission to the security of the United States and its allies and said if you think that's important, then the answer is Yes. Asked by reporters traveling with him at the time if he believed the deployment of roughly 900 US troops to Syria was worth the risk, Milley said. Milley said that's important.

While the Islamic State has ruled over a third of Syria and Iraq in a Caliphate declared in 2014, hundreds of fighters are still in desolate areas where neither the US-led coalition nor the Syrian army exert full control.

Thousands of other Islamic State fighters are being held in detention facilities guarded by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America's key ally in the country.

American officials say that the Islamic State could still be a major threat.

READ MORE: Drones target US outpost in Syria, no American injuries.

The mission, which was nearly ended in 2018 before the US military deployment to Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, is a remnant of the larger global war against terrorism that had included the war in Afghanistan and a larger US military deployment to Iraq.