According to sources an U.S. contractor was killed and five service members and one other contractor injured by a drone strike on a coalition base in northeast Syria, reported by the Department of Defense.

The U.S. retaliated with airstrikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria, which hit buildings that housed drone/aviation assets and vehicles used by groups affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). One activist group said the U.S. strikes killed fighters on the ground.

(POC) — BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel numbers for the 4th quarter of Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) and the current status of efforts underway to improve the management of contractors accompanying United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on DoD contractor personnel deployed in Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel
numbers for 3rd quarter Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) and the current status of efforts underway to
improve management of contractors accompanying United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on
DoD contractor personnel deployed in Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) and the
U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel numbers for 4th quarter Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) and the current status of efforts underway to improve management of contractors accompanying the United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS); Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR); and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel numbers for 2nd quarter Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) and current status of efforts underway to improve management of contractors accompanying United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS); Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR); and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

KEY POINTS: During 2nd quarter FY21, USCENTCOM reported approximately 37,597 contractor personnel supporting DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR, a decrease of approximately 567 from the previous quarter.

BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel numbers for 4th quarter Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) and current status of efforts underway to improve management of contractors accompanying United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS); Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR); and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

KEY POINTS: During 4th quarter FY20, USCENTCOM reported approximately 43,809 contractor personnel supporting DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR, a decrease of approximately 5,128 from the previous quarter.

BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel numbers for 2nd quarter Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) and current status of efforts underway to improve management of contractors accompanying United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS); Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR); and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

KEY POINTS: During 2nd quarter FY20, USCENTCOM reported approximately 52,142 contractor personnel supporting DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR, an increase of approximately 1,678 from the previous quarter.

According to the Department of Defense, they awarded a maximum $75,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, 192-day bridge contract for maintenance, repair, and operations support in the Central Command Area of Responsibility.

Locations of performance are Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, with a June 1, 2019, performance completion date. 

When asking about the role of private contractors in the so-called “War on Terror”, one has to be careful not to fall for the sensationalism which envelops much of the public debate on military outsourcing. This means keeping a focus on the structural and systematic rather
than the individual, anecdotal evidence of contractor involvement in military affairs.

It also means pointing out the large breadth of outsourced responsibilities, as the majority of contractors are unarmed and tasked with relatively mundane tasks unlike the image regularly conveyed by the press.

According to the latest GAO report, The United States has engaged in multiple efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria since declaring a global war on terrorism in 2001. Currently, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, U.S. forces are deployed under force management levels set by the administration. Force management levels and similar caps limit the number of U.S. military personnel deployed to a given region and have been a factor in military operations at least since the Vietnam War. Force management levels were also used to shape the drawdowns of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In June 2016, the President announced that the force management level for Afghanistan is 9,800. According to DOD, in September 2016 the United States authorized additional troops for Iraq and Syria, for a total of 5,262.

Operation Inherent Resolve is the name given to military’s operation to combat IS in Iraq, Syria, and in other countries. Last month the Department of Defense said it awarded an intelligence analysis contract to private contractor Six3 Intelligence Solutions, a cyber and signals intelligence and surveillance firm that is a subsidiary of CACI International Inc.

This appears to be the first time the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged that private contractors are also playing a role in the fight against the so-called Islamic State inside Syria, and it’s one more signal that the U.S. military is deepening its involvement in the fate of the country.

The United States' occupation of Iraq established what is known as consensual democracy based on the division of society into Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, as was the case in the pre-state phase. The political circumstances in the country have not been this terrible since 1921. Everyone observed how a corrupt elite has turned Iraq into a sectarian state in which the true concept of state is absent.

Violent groups such as ISIS and the popular opposition forces are outlawed militias that do not adhere to any constitution. Although the popular forces enjoy the support of the government, the latter has framed and directed them toward the implementation of a sectarian agenda as the government's position is against the Sunnis. When talks about supporting the Sunnis began, the current government in Baghdad started to worry about its future.

The U.S. government contractors caught in a blast at a firing range in Bulgaria last week were working on a U.S. military program to train and equip moderate rebels in Syria, the U.S. embassy in Sofia.

One American contractor was killed and two more were injured when a rocket-propelled grenade malfunctioned at a military range near the village of Anevo. Two Bulgarians were also injured in the explosion.