DAMASCUS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. airstrikes on strongholds of pro-Iran militias in eastern Syria after midnight Friday killed 11 fighters, a war monitor reported.
The airstrikes hit an arms depot and other military outposts of the pro-Iran fighters in the province of Deir al-Zour, in retaliation to the pro-Iran militias' drone attacks on U.S. positions in the same region, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the observatory, said the Iranian fighters had targeted U.S. positions in the al-Omar oil field in Deir al-Zour overnight, adding that both sides exchanged fire.
Abdul-Rahman said he expected the U.S. would carry out more attacks after recruiting agents on the ground to gather information about the locations and positions of the pro-Iran militias in eastern Syria.
The Syrian government has not commented on the most recent escalation.
The Pentagon said on Friday that a U.S. contractor was killed, and five U.S. service members and one other U.S. contractor were wounded when a suspected Iranian drone struck a facility of the U.S. coalition in northeast Syria. ■
