US targets Syria with airstrikes

American forces have carried out retaliatory strikes in Syria in response to a deadly drone attack on a US-led coalition base in the northeastern part of the country, the Pentagon has said. One US contractor was killed and five American troops and a contractor were wounded after "a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle" struck a maintenance facility near town of Hasakah around midday on Thursday. The Pentagon has said Iran-affiliated groups were targeted, while local sources claim civilian infrastructure was hit. The US secretary of defense did not reveal the location of the strikes, but footage on social media allegedly showed explosions in Syria's eastern province of Deir ez-Zor, which borders Iraq. Local sources told Iranian broadcaster Press TV that the US missiles had not hit any facilities linked to Iranian groups, instead, a rural development center and a grain facility were struck.

An unnamed military source vowed that "resistance groups" are planning to respond to the American strikes. Some 900 US troops remain in oil-rich northeastern Syria after being deployed there in the mid-2010s under the pretext of fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants. Damascus considers their presence illegal and has repeatedly complained to the UN. Russia and Iran have aided the country in fighting terrorism.