US launches airstrikes in Syria after drone kills American worker

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

A strike by a suspected Iranian-made drone killed a US contractor and wounded five American troops and another contractor in north-east Syria, the Pentagon said.

American forces said they retaliated soon after with “precision airstrikes” in Syria targeting facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, with activist groups saying they killed at least four people.