US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks are ‘a declaration of vengeance’, and ‘lots’ of fighters have been killed.
The United States military is “striking very seriously against ISIS [ISIL] strongholds in Syria”, President Donald Trump said, a week after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in Syria’s Palmyra city.
“Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria… I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
Details on the number of people injured or killed in the barrage of strikes were not immediately available.
Trump said that Syria’s government, which was formed after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, was “fully in support” of the US military operation.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also repeated its commitment to combating ISIL and said it “invites the United States and member states of the international coalition to support these efforts”.
“The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates its steadfast commitment to fighting ISIS 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 ministry said in the statement shared on X early on Saturday.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier that US forces had targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites”, adding that the attack was named Operation Hawkeye Strike.
Two US officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that the air strikes were against dozens of ISIL targets across central Syria.
The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for operations in the Middle East, said it deployed “fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery” to launch “more than 100 precision munitions targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites”. But it did not provide further details on the locations or casualties.
CENTCOM said that “the Jordanian Armed Forces also supported with fighter aircraft”.
US deploys ‘fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery’
media’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting earlier from Washington, DC, said the Syrian government appeared to have “signed off” on the US operation.
“The Trump administration has, in recent weeks, put a lot of stock in trying to shore up the government of the new interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and… trying to keep ISIL away from civilian and military targets in Syria – as it tries to rebuild the government, as well as civil society – is a key operation,” she added.
Three Americans – two US National Guard members and a civilian interpreter – were killed last weekend in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of US and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the US military.
Three US soldiers were also wounded in the attack. The US blamed that attack on ISIL and promised to retaliate.
About 1,000 US troops are stationed in Syria as part of a years-long operation targeting the remnants of ISIL forces in the region.
A US-led coalition has also carried out air strikes and ground operations in Syria targeting ISIL suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces.
ISIL captured Palmyra in 2015, at the height of its military ascendancy in Syria, before losing the city 10 months later. During that time, it destroyed several ancient sites and artefacts while using others to stage mass killings.
ISIL was vanquished in Syria in 2018 but still carries out sporadic attacks without controlling any territory inside Syria.
Syria’s government has been cooperating in the US-led fight against ISIL. An agreement on cooperation was reached last month when President al-Sharaa met with Trump at the White House.
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