US and allied forces on Saturday carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, the US military said, the latest response to an attack last month that killed three Americans.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military forces in the region, said multiple strikes “targeted ISIS throughout Syria,” using an acronym for the radical Muslim group.
CENTCOM’s post on X did not give specifics on where they took place.
Photo: US CENTCOM via AFP
Grainy aerial video accompanying the post showed several separate explosions, apparently in rural areas.
The strikes were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched “in direct response to the deadly ISIS attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra,” CENTCOM said.
Jordanian air force also carried out targeted air strikes against IS as part of the operation, its military said yesterday.
The Jordanian military said in a statement it struck “a number of targets ... in several areas within Syria territory.”
Two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter were killed on Dec. 13 after a lone gunman — whom Washington described as an IS militant — ambushed them in Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins and once controlled by the radical group.
The Syrian Ministry of the Interior later said the gunman was a member of the security forces who had been set to be fired for extremism.
“We will never forget, and never relent,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday in a post on X, replying to the CENTCOM statement.
The US and Jordan carried out a round of strikes last month in response to the Palmyra attack, with CENTCOM saying at the time that “more than 70 targets” had been hit.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, later reported those strikes killed at least five IS members, including a cell leader.
On Jan. 3, the UK and France announced joint strikes targeting an underground facility they said IS had likely used to store weapons.
The US personnel targeted in Palmyra were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat IS, which seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.
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