US retaliates with airstrikes in Syria after Iranian drone strike kills US contractor

U.S. CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla told senators Thursday that the Pentagon has seen an "increase recently in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian air force." The U.S. military carried out several airstrikes in Syria on Thursday in response to a drone strike Iranian forces conducted earlier in the day on a coalition base that killed one American. The Defense Department said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps crashed a UAV into a building near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time, leaving one U.S. contractor dead. The attack also wounded five U.S. service members and another U.S. contractor. U.S. intelligence assessed the UAV and determined it to be of Iranian origin -- so President Biden authorized the military to retaliate, the Pentagon said.