On March 8, 2023, a drone strike in the government-held eastern city of Deir Ezzor killed four people. The US has approximately 900 troops stationed in bases and posts across northeastern Syria as part of the international coalition fighting remnants of the Islamic State group. In retaliation for a drone attack that left an American dead and six others wounded, US air strikes killed eleven pro-Iran fighters in Syria. The Pentagon reported that a kamikaze drone “of Iranian origin” struck a maintenance facility on a base of the US-led coalition near Hasakeh in northeastern Syria, killing one contractor and wounding another contractor and five US service personnel. In response, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that he had ordered “precision air strikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” at President Joe Biden’s direction. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 11 people had been killed by US strikes, including two Syrians. The United States deploys about 900 troops in bases and posts across northeastern Syria as part of the international coalition fighting remnants of the Islamic State group (IS). Iran-backed militias have a heavy presence across Syria, especially around the border with Iraq and south and west of the Euphrates in Deir Ezzor province, where the latest US strikes took place. American troops also support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army in the area, which led the battle that dislodged IS from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019. The US personnel are frequently targeted in attacks by militia groups.
