Israel National News reports: “A US contractor was killed and five US service members and one US contractor were wounded on Thursday when a suicide drone hit a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement quoted by NBC News.

The incident occurred just before 2:00 p.m. local time, the statement said, adding that the intelligence community believes the drone to have been of Iranian origin.

The US retaliated with air strikes on Iranian-linked targets in the area.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, ‘At the direction of President Biden, I authorized US Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).’

‘The air strikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,’ he added…”