US launches ‘large-scale’ strikes against ISIS targets in Syria: What we know so far | Today News

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces said they, alongside partner forces, conducted large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets across Syria on Saturday (January 10). The strikes were carried out around 12:30 pm Eastern Time.

"These strikes are part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched and announced on Dec. 19, 2025, at the direction of President Trump, in direct response to the deadly ISIS attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria, on Dec. 13, 2025," CENTCOM said in a post on X.

"That ambush, carried out by an ISIS terrorist, resulted in the tragic deaths of two American soldiers and one U.S. civilian interpreter," the department added.

“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” the US Central Command said.

1. The US strikes were carried out in response to an attack last month that killed three Americans.

2. CENTCOM shared the news about the strikes in a post on X but did not give specifics on where they took place.

3. Grainy aerial video accompanying the post showed several separate explosions, apparently in rural areas.

4. The strikes were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike.

5. Two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter were killed on December 13 after a lone gunman -- whom Washington described as an IS militant -- ambushed them in Palmyra.

6. Syria's interior ministry later said the gunman was a member of the security forces who had been set to be fired for extremism.

7. 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.

8. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, claimed that those strikes killed at least five IS members, including a cell leader.

9. On January 3, Britain and France announced joint strikes targeting an underground facility they said IS had likely used to store weapons.

10. The US personnel targeted in Palmyra were reportedly supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat IS, which seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.

11. US President Donald Trump has long been sceptical of Washington's presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops during his first term but ultimately leaving American forces in the country.

12. The Pentagon announced in April that the United States would halve the number of US personnel in Syria in the following months, while US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said in June that Washington would eventually reduce its bases in the country to one.