The United States has launched large-scale air and ground strikes against Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria, following a deadly attack that killed three Americans, as President Donald Trump said Washington was delivering “very serious retaliation.”
US forces hit more than 70 Islamic State targets across central Syria on Friday, days after a December 13 attack in Palmyra that left two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter dead. The ancient city, home to UNESCO-listed ruins, was once under the control of jihadist fighters.
According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), American forces struck multiple locations using fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery. “The operation employed more than 100 precision munitions targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites,” CENTCOM said.
Trump said the strikes fulfilled a pledge he made after the deadly attack, writing on his Truth Social platform that the United States is “inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” and warning that those who target Americans “WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE.”
Washington said the Palmyra attack was carried out by a lone Islamic State gunman. CENTCOM added that US and allied forces have since “conducted 10 operations in Syria and Iraq resulting in the deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives,” though it did not identify the specific groups involved.
Syria’s foreign ministry, while not directly addressing the latest US strikes, said the country remains committed to fighting the Islamic State group and “ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory, and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”
The Americans killed in the Palmyra attack were identified as Iowa National Guard sergeants William Howard and Edgar Torres Tovar, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a civilian interpreter from Michigan. Trump, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and top military officer General Dan Caine attended a ceremony marking the return of their remains to the United States on Wednesday.
The attack was the first of its kind since the overthrow of longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December last year. Syrian interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the attacker was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
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The US personnel targeted were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international campaign launched to combat Islamic State after the group seized large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. Although the jihadists were later defeated by local forces backed by international air power, the group continues to operate, particularly in Syria’s vast desert regions.
Trump has repeatedly questioned the scale of US military involvement in Syria. During his first term, he ordered a troop withdrawal but ultimately left American forces in the country. In April, the Pentagon announced plans to halve US troop numbers in Syria, while US envoy Tom Barrack said in June that Washington would eventually reduce its bases to one.
US forces are currently stationed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast and at Al-Tanf, near the Jordanian border.
(AFP)