US forces in northeast Syria come under attack for second straight day

US forces stationed at a military facility in northeast Syria came under rocket attack for the second straight day on Friday as tensions continue to escalate.

In all, 10 rockets targeted the Green Village in northeast Syria, but no injuries or damage at the facility were recorded, the Central Command said in a statement.

But one of the rockets veered off course and missed the Green Village by 5 kilometers (3 miles), striking a house and "causing significant damage" and injuring two women and two children, it added.

The Green Village is located at the al Omar gas field, and about 900 US troops are stationed there.

“This kind of indiscriminate rocket attack places not only our forces and coalition forces at risk, but also jeopardizes the local civilian population as well as the security and stability of Syria and the entire region,” said Central Command spokesperson Col. Joe Buccino.

“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,” he added, referring to the US president.

The US conducted retaliatory airstrikes on Thursday against Iran-backed groups in eastern Syria in response to a drone attack that killed a US contractor and injured five service members.

According to reports, several Iran-backed militias were killed in the US air strikes, but the number of fatalities could not be immediately verified.

The Pentagon said in a statement that a suicide drone "struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria" on Thursday afternoon, which resulted in the injury of another US contractor.

According to the statement, "the intelligence community assesses the UAV to be of Iranian origin.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he authorized US Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes against facilities used by militia groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at the direction of President Joe Biden.

"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," said Austin.

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.

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Drone attacks

The Pentagon said two of the service members injured on Thursday were treated onsite, while the three other troops and one US contractor were medically evacuated to Iraq.

"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.

Last August, Biden ordered similar retaliatory strikes in the oil-rich Syrian province of Deir Ezzor after several drones targeted a coalition outpost, without causing any casualties.

That attack came the same day that Iranian state media announced a Revolutionary Guard general had been killed days earlier while "on a mission in Syria as a military adviser."

The IRGC is the ideological arm of the Iranian military and is blacklisted by the United States.

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