(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 24 - A series of airstrikes was launched overnight in Syria by US forces, in response to a drone attack in the northeast, attributed to Iranian elite forces, which killed a contractor and wounded 6 others.
US intelligence believes the drone was of Iranian origin.
"At the direction of President Biden, I have authorized US Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria on counter-structures used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," Defense Secretary Lloyd said. J. Austin III.
"The airstrikes were carried out in response to today's attack, as well as a number of recent attacks on coalition forces in Syria by IRGC-affiliated groups."
“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary steps to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Secretary Austin said.
"No group will strike our troops with impunity."
Meanwhile, an NGO has announced that yesterday, in northern Syria, five Syrian soldiers and five jihadists from the Hayat Tahrir al-Cham group (HTS), the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, were killed in clashes in the province of Aleppo.
These clashes took place between the army of President Basharal-Assad and the HTS, which controls, with less influential rebel factions, about half of the province of Idlib (north-west) and bordering sectors of the neighboring provinces, in particular that of Aleppo.
(HANDLE).