Syria: US contractor dies in drone attack, Washington responds by bombing pro-Iranians
The United States struck Iran-linked groups in Syria on Thursday after a US contractor was killed and five soldiers and another US contractor were injured in an alleged drone strike.
The Pentagon said US casualties were struck at a base near Hasakah in the northeastern part of the country when an "unmanned aerial vehicle" struck a maintenance facility at 1:38 pm local time. The statement said intelligence assessed the drone as "of Iranian origin".
Three service members and the surviving US contractor were medically evacuated to military medical facilities in Iraq. Two service members were treated on the base. No details were provided about the military branches to which the service members belonged, nor about the identity of the contractors.
The Syrian province of Hasakah is located south of Turkey and west of Iraq
"At the direction of President Biden, I have authorized US Central Command forces to conduct precision air strikes in eastern Syria tonight against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," he said. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in a statement. "The airstrikes were carried out in response to today's attack and a number of recent attacks on Coalition forces in Syria by IRGC-affiliated groups."
The violence came on the same day that it was learned that Syria and Saudi Arabia are on the verge of fully restoring diplomatic ties, including the reopening of embassies. As we wrote just yesterday:
It seems the Gulf is willing to acknowledge that the Syrian government has won the decades-long war and move forward, but not Washington. The United States continued its military occupation of northern Syria and Israel extended its bombing campaign, including attacks on Aleppo International Airport this week.
The violence also comes as a China-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran will see the longtime archrivals restore full diplomacy. An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, disappointed by the prospect of more peaceful relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, said it was the result of American "weakness".
In August last year, US helicopters attacked Iran-linked militants in Syria after they fired rockets at US bases.
In a separate statement on Thursday's events, US Central Command said: “ Our troops remain in Syria to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS, for the benefit of the security and stability not only of Syria, but of the whole region ". Meanwhile, they use local oil and gas resources in cooperation with allies.
Why are there US troops in Syria?
— patico
(@missanarkissed) March 24, 2023
Officially, some 900 US service members are deployed in Syria, against the wishes of the Syrian government. The presence dates back to 2015, with successive administrations arguing that the deployments are legal under the old Authorizations of the Use of Military Force (AUMF) of 2001 and 2002. The first authorized the use of force against the perpetrators of the September 11 and the second authorized the disastrous invasion of Iraq.
Earlier this month, the House rejected a resolution that would have asked President Biden to withdraw US troops within 180 days. Tabled by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, the resolution failed by a vote of 103-321. Both yes and no were highly bipartisan: 56 Democrats joined 47 Republicans in calling for troop withdrawals.
On Wednesday, in a 9-86 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Rand Paul that would have put a six-month deadline on the 2001 AUMF. No one in Congress in 2001 believed they were voting for a decades-long war fought in at least 19 countries,” Paul wrote in Responsible Statecraft, noting that the six-month window would give Congress time to discuss “where and how to authorize force.”
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The article Syria: US contractor dies in drone attack, Washington responds by bombing pro-Iranians comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/siria-contractor-usa-muore-in-attacco-di-droni-washington-risponde-bombardando-i-filo-iraniani/ on Fri, 24 Mar 2023 17:32:58 +0000.