The U.S. military on Thursday struck Iranian-funded groups in Syria after a drone strike on a U.S. base in the country killed an American contractor and injured six others, the Pentagon announced.  

At the direction of President Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “authorized U.S. 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),” according to a Defense Department statement.  

“The airstrikes 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,” the statement added.  

Earlier on Thursday a U.S. contractor was killed and five U.S. service members and an additional American contractor were wounded after a drone struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria around 1:38 p.m. local time, the Pentagon said. 

Two of the wounded service members were treated on-site, while the four others were medically evacuated to Coalition medical facilities in Iraq, according to the statement.  

The U.S. intelligence community later assessed the drone to be of Iranian origin.  Dueling TikTok creators take over Capitol Hill as battle over app heats up House fails to override Biden’s first veto

“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin said in the release. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.” 

Roughly 900 U.S. troops are based in eastern Syria to give help Syrian Kurdish forces keep an Islamic State resurgence at bay in the region.   

The American bases have been targeted by drone attacks in the last several months, though such strikes have not resulted in injuries or physical damage until now.