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F-15Es Strike Back After Deadly Iranian-Made Drone Attack On U.S. Base In Syria (Updated)
Citat:Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, held a media briefing Friday afternoon and offered several comments about the ongoing situation in Syria.
In response to the deadly Iranian-made drone attack, the U.S. conducted F-15E strikes on two IRGC-affiliated facilities near Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria at approximately 7:40 pm. Eastern Time, or 2:40 am local time. The U.S. is assessing the outcome of the strikes. Initial indications are that the facilities were destroyed. The U.S. is still assessing whether any militants were killed in the strikes.
Other than saying its radar was working, Ryder declined to comment about whether the air defense system at the U.S. base that was hit by the Iranian-made drone was working. The New York Times on Friday - citing “two U.S. officials” - reported that the “main air defense system at a coalition military base in northeast Syria was not fully operational” when the suspected Iranian drone attacked. “It was unclear why the system was not fully operational and what difference that made in defending the base," the newspaper reported. “For operational security reasons, I'm not going to get into the specifics in terms of the types of force protection capabilities we have in our facilities other than to say we take force protection very, very seriously,” Ryder told reporters Friday. “As it pertains to radar, my understanding is that there was a complete sight picture in terms of radar.” CENTCOM, he said, will investigate.
Ryder acknowledged that the rocket attack on the U.S. base at Green Village in Syria was in response to the F-15E strikes, but downplayed the issue of escalation in the region with Iran. “At approximately 8:05 am local time, which would have been 1:05 am Eastern Time, we had 10 rockets that targeted coalition forces at Green Village in northeast Syria. The attack resulted in no injuries to U.S. or coalition personnel and no damage to equipment or facilities. In terms of escalation, our focus in Syria is on the defeat ISIS mission. And that will remain our focus. We do not seek conflict with Iran. We don't seek escalation with Iran. But the strikes that we took last night are intended to send a very clear message that we will take the protection of our personnel seriously and it will respond quickly and decisively if they're threatened.”
Iran has a responsibility to keep its proxies from firing on the U.S. and allies, Ryder said. “Look, we know that these groups are sponsored by Iran. So Iran certainly plays a role in terms of ensuring that this type of activity doesn't happen. Iran certainly again backs these groups and by default, therefore has a responsibility to ensure that they're not contributing to insecure instability, but clearly, they continue to do that.”
Ryder did not know what kind of drone was used in the attack, but said it crashed into the facility as opposed to firing any weapons.
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