US retaliates after drone strike kills American contractor

Videos posted to social media purported to show explosions in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, a strategic province bordering Iraq and containing oil fields.

US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin (Andrew Harnik/AP)

By Lou Kesten and Jon Gambrell, Associated Press

A US contractor was killed and another hurt alongside five American armed forces personnel when a suspected Iranian drone attacked a facility on a coalition base in north-east Syria, the Pentagon said.