The United States on Friday launched airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack that killed two US soldiers and an interpreter in Palmyra last week.
The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for the Middle East, said on social media that US forces "have commenced a large-scale strike against ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria."
Syrian state television reported that strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces as well as in the Jabal al-Amour area near Palmyra.
It said they targeted "weapons storage sites and headquarters used by IS as launching points for its operations in the region."
A Pentagon official told the Associated Press that the attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle fighter jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters.
"Earlier today, US forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on US forces that occurred on December 13 in Palmyra, Syria," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post.
"This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance," he continued. "Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue."
Two Iowa National Guard members and a civilian interpreter were killed on December 13 in an attack in the Syrian desert that the Trump administration has blamed on the Islamic State group.
The US Army named the soldiers as Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. The interpreter was Ayad Mansoor Sakat of Macomb, Michigan.
Soon after the attack, which occurred when a Syrian security guard burst into a meeting of US and Syrian security officials and opened fire, US President Donald Trump promised "very serious retaliation."
He insisted the target of the response would be IS, not Syria, stressing that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa was "extremely angry and disturbed by this attack."
On Friday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry released a statement reading: "Syria reiterates its commitment to combat Islamic State and intensify military operations against the group after the US strikes." It said there could be "no safe havens on Syrian territory" for the terrorist group.
Trump said on Friday that the US was "striking very strongly against ISIS strongholds in Syria, a place soaked in blood which has many problems, but one that has a bright future if ISIS can be eradicated."
Earlier this week, Trump met privately with the families of the dead Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
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After taking control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, the so-called Islamic State is considered militarily defeated, but its fighters remain active in both countries and continue to carry out attacks.
Since sweeping to power and deposing former President Bashar al-Assad a year ago, the new Syrian regime under al-Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group has attempted to restore relations with the international community and insisted that it is opposed to terrorism and Islamist extremism.
Syria has been cooperating with a US-led coalition against Islamic State, reaching an agreement last month when al-Sharaa met Trump at the White House.
Approximately 1,000 US troops remain stationed in Syria.
