US vows to protect personnel in Syria after deadly attack

Reuters 24 Mar 2024

The United States on Friday said it would protect its personnel in Syria after the U.S. military carried out air strikes against Iran-backed forces in retaliation for an attack that killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. troops.

Just a day after the deadly attack on U.S. personnel in Syria, which Washington blamed on a drone of Iranian origin, sources said a U.S. base in Syria's northeast was targeted with a new missile attack. U.S. officials said there were no U.S. casualties in the incident on Friday.

The latest violence could further aggravate already strained relations between Washington and Tehran amid stalled efforts to revive a nuclear deal and Iran's military support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We're going to work to protect our people and our facilities as best we can. It's a dangerous environment," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on CNN.

Although U.S. forces stationed in Syria have been targeted by drones before, fatalities are rare.

The Pentagon said the U.S. strikes by F-15 jets on Thursday targeted facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war in Syria, said the U.S. strikes had killed eight pro-Iranian fighters in Syria.