The U.S. military has launched strikes against Islamic State group infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria, officials said Friday, following an attack on U.S. and partner forces in Syria last week that killed three Americans.
President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate Saturday after two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter were killed in the attack, an incident the Department of Defense said occurred during a counterterrorism engagement.
Trump announced Friday on Truth Social that the U.S. was "inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible" for the deaths.
"We are 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," he said in the post.
The goal of the operation was to hit locations where ISIS is trying to reconstitute and to root out those forces and destroy their locations on a large scale, according to a U.S. official.
The U.S. military used A-10s, F-16s, Apache helicopters, and HIMARS while Jordanian F-16s also provided support, the official said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strikes killed "lots" of "enemies."
“Earlier today, U.S. forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on U.S. forces that occurred on December 13th in Palmyra, Syria,” he said.
"This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance," Hegseth added.
Additional information about the strikes and total casualties was not immediately available.
“President Trump told the world that the United States would retaliate for the killing of our heroes by ISIS in Syria, and he is delivering on that promise," Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said Friday about the attack.
Three other U.S. personnel were wounded in the Dec. 13 attack in Palmyra, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said on X last Saturday. The soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in “support of ongoing counter-ISIS operations,” he said.
The two soldiers killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the Iowa National Guard. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.
The shooting that took place near the historic city of Palmyra also wounded three U.S. personnel and members of Syria’s security forces, before the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with ISIS, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba has said.
