WASHINGTON: US and allied forces carried out “large-scale” strikes towards the Islamic State group in Syria on Saturday (Jan 10), the US navy stated, within the newest response to an attack last month that left three Individuals useless.
Washington stated a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the Dec 13 assault in Palmyra – house to UNESCO-listed historic ruins and as soon as managed by extremist fighters – that killed two US troopers and a US civilian interpreter.
“The strikes as we speak focused ISIS all through Syria” and had been a part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched “in direct response to the lethal ISIS assault on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra”, US Central Command stated in an announcement on X, utilizing an acronym for the extremist group.
The US and Jordan carried out a earlier spherical of strikes as a part of the identical operation final month, hitting dozens of Islamic State group targets.
The Palmyra assault was the primary such incident for the reason that overthrow of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
The US personnel who had been focused had been supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the worldwide effort to fight IS, which seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.
The extremists had been finally defeated by native floor forces backed by worldwide air strikes and different help, however IS nonetheless has a presence in Syria, particularly within the nation’s huge desert.
US President Donald Trump has lengthy been sceptical of Washington’s presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops throughout his first time period however finally leaving American forces within the nation.
The Pentagon introduced in April that the USA would halve the variety of US personnel in Syria within the following months, whereas US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack stated in June that Washington would ultimately scale back its bases within the nation to 1.
