The Pentagon
says an Iranian made
drone killed an American contractor
and wounded five U.S.
service members
after it struck a base in northeast
Syria.
President Joe Biden
responding with airstrikes against groups
affiliated with Iran's
Revolutionary Guard in Syria.
And you can see ambulances
rushing to that scene in what looks like
a burning building off to the side.
The US still has roughly 900
troops on the ground in Syria to help
stamp out ISIS.
Just yesterday,
their commander testifying to Congress
about how Iran is using proxy militias
to attack
American soldiers
with drones and rockets.
So let's go to our national security
reporter, Natasha Bertrand.
She joins us
live at the Pentagon Natasha,
good morning to you.
This breaking overnight, the U.S.
military says it's ready to respond
not just to this,
but to any additional Iranian attacks
if this continues to escalate
That's right, Poppy.
And Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
did issue a statement last night saying
that he authorized the strike
after President Biden
ordered it in response
to a series of attacks
by these of groups
affiliated with Iran's
Revolutionary Guard Corps
against US personnel in Syria.
This is not the first time
that the US has conducted
these kinds of strikes,
but it is
these
these kinds of attacks are
increasing and the US says
that it's going to respond
in a proportional way.
President Joe Biden ordering a U.S.
airstrike in eastern Syria Thursday
after U.S.
intelligence assessed
that an Iranian origin
drone killed an American contractor
and wounded five U.S.
service members and another U.S.
contractor.
Biden authorized the strike,
quote, against facilities used by groups
affiliated with Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd
Austin said in a statement.
The Department of Defense said it, quote,
took proportionate and deliberate action
intended to limit the risk of escalation
and minimize casualties.
The U.S.
military maintains approximately 900 U.S.
troops in Syria.
Some of
which are there
as part of a coalition to defeat ISIS.
But those forces are often
under attack by Iranian proxies.
Iran's vast
and deeply resourced proxy forces
spread instability throughout the region
and threaten our regional partners.
The commander of U.S.
Central Command
said in a statement
following the strike, quote,
We are postured for scalable options
in the face
of any additional Iranian attacks.
Testifying on Capitol Hill
Thursday, Chiarelli said that
Iranian proxies
have carried out attacks on U.S.
forces in the Middle East.
78 times since the beginning of 20, 21.
And so what Iran does to hide its hand
is they use Iranian proxies.
That's that's either UAV
or or rockets to be able
to attack our forces in Iraq or Syria.
Are these considered acts of war by Iran?
They are being done
by the
Iranian proxies, is what I would tell
you, Congressman.
The Biden administration has carried out
multiple airstrikes against militias
affiliated with Iran
following previous attacks on U.S.
facilities in the region.
Biden's first known
military action
was a strike in February 2021
after rocket attacks on U.S.
troops in Iraq.
Now, adding to this concern is yet
another thing
that Khairallah, the commander of U.S.
Central Command,
told Congress last week,
which is that today
Iran possesses
the largest and most diverse
missile arsenal in the Middle East,
with thousands
of ballistic and cruise missiles.
And we should note
that two of those wounded
service members
from the strike on Thursday
were treated on site.
But three additional service members
and a US contractor
were actually medically evacuated,
evacuated to coalition medical facilities
in Iraq Poppy. Don.
Really significant overnight.
Natasha, thank you very much for that.
Reporting from the Pentagon.
Don, thank you.
We're very lucky to have our military
analyst and retired
Air Force Colonel Cedric
Leighton to walk us through that.
Colonel, thank you so much.
Listen, to the first strike
happening in the northeast
and then just south of
that is where Biden authorized
that strike back again.
Can you tell us what happened
Yeah, John, good morning.
So we're basically with the first strike
that the Iranians
conducted, the Iranian proxies conducted,
I should say.
What we're looking at here is
in the northeastern part of Syria.
The U.S.
maintains a major presence
with Kurdish forces.
So this is a vestige of the work
that we did against ISIS to destroy that
that entity.
And, of course,
there's still elements that exist there
What happened
was the strike occurred on the U.S.
facility,
and that ended up killing the contractor
and wounding the five soldiers
and the other contractor
So with that IED, that
the Iranian proxies are working
very much in conjunction with Iran.
And it's also something to note
that when you look at the way
in which this happened,
you can see this happening
right after Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Much of the relationship
with China is felt.
So there is a lot that's going on here.
A lot to unpack.
But the basic idea is that the U.S.
then responded after this strike occurred
and the were on the map that you have by
you doing
that was where that Iranian group
was actually located.
So the attack that the US conducted
was right
there more or less
in the central part of the country.
Are you expecting the U.S.
military to respond further?
I think this is it for the moment.
But what would happen
if the Iranian proxies did
to move forward
with some other attacks,
then you can expect that Central Command,
the U.S.
Central Command,
would be responding in kind.
So they've basically said
that they would use proportionate force.
Any time that something like
this happened
and this is the response
after about 80 attacks that have occurred
since the beginning of 2021,
as we've been reporting, they saw U.S.
personnel there.
The U.S.
Intel says that
the strike was carried out
by these Iranian proxies
that you mentioned in the region.
What more do we know about where they are
and the threat that they pose to the U.S.
military, to the U.S.
personnel?
Right.
So most of these groups are located
in the eastern
and central parts of Syria.
There are some that are located
in the western part of the country.
A lot of the fighting
that was going on
in the Aleppo region, for example, I
Iranian proxies were involved in that
in these Syrian war.
So these elements are really throughout
the country of Syria.
And they can turn and attack any forces
where the side
is, the Syrian defense forces,
democratic forces
that are aligned with us over the Kurds
or some other entity, including the U.S.
forces that are there.
Just last Thursday, the top U.S.
military general
for the Middle East
testified before Congress
that Iran is significantly more
military capable than ever.
Let's listen and then
I'll get your response. It is
today, Iran is
exponentially more capable than they were
just five years ago today.
Iran possesses
the largest and most diverse
missile arsenal in the Middle East.
Thousands of ballistic
and cruise
missiles,
many capable
of striking anywhere in the Middle East.
Iran also maintains
the largest
and most capable UAV force in the region.
So Iranian proxies
have carried out attacks on U.S.
forces in the Middle East.
78 times since the beginning of 20.
21.
What are you concerns, Colonel?
So what this show is, is that
there's a real proliferation of arms
in the Middle East.
And Iran is been culprit in this case.
And what they are doing in order
to protect
the identity
of who's doing this,
at least protected initially
is to give a lot of these weapons
to proxy forces
so that they can use what's called
plausible deniability.
In other words,
they can wash their hands
of whatever happened
and say it wasn't done.
So even though it really was them.
So this is very concerning
because it really directly impacts
American interests
anywhere in the Middle East.
It really impacts
the ability of the Kurds,
for example, to maintain
a relative peace in their region.
And it puts at risk
any type of peace agreement
that was reached in the Syrian civil war.
So this is something
that is very dangerous
and could explode it in.
Yeah, that is Cedric
Leighton, Colonel Cedric Leighton.
A little bit later on,
we're going to have John Kirby.
He's going to join us
from the White House. Thank you, Colonel.