U.S. Military Carries Out Large-Scale Strikes on ISIS Targets Across Syria

The U.S. military carried out large-scale airstrikes on Islamic State targets across Syria on Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced, extending a campaign that began last month after an ambush killed three Americans. Fox News reported that CENTCOM said the strikes took place at about 12:30 p.m. Eastern time and hit “multiple ISIS targets across Syria.”

CENTCOM said the strikes are part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which it said was launched Dec. 19 “in direct response to the deadly ISIS attack on U.S. and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria,” according to Fox News. The New Arab reported that CENTCOM’s post did not specify locations, and that aerial video it released showed several separate explosions, apparently in rural areas. Jordan’s air force also struck Islamic State targets as part of the operation, the New Arab reported.

The campaign traces to Dec. 13, when a lone gunman opened fire on U.S. personnel in Palmyra, killing two Iowa National Guard soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter, as Fox and the New Arab described. Washington called the gunman an Islamic State militant. Syria’s interior ministry said he was a member of its security forces who was due to be dismissed for extremism, the New Arab reported. The first round of strikes in December hit “more than 70 targets,” CENTCOM said, according to the New Arab.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X that the U.S. “will never forget, and never relent,” the New Arab reported. The Palmyra personnel had been supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international campaign against the Islamic State.

The New Arab noted that the Pentagon announced in April that it would halve U.S. personnel in Syria, and that a U.S. envoy said in June that American bases there would eventually be reduced to one. The retaliatory campaign is therefore being carried out largely from the air, with partner forces such as Jordan’s.

The strikes also come at a delicate time in Syria’s politics. Fox News reported that U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack met in Damascus with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, and that the talks focused on recent developments in Aleppo and Syria’s political transition. Barrack said the United States supports the Syrian government. Fox noted that the White House and the Department of War had not responded to requests for comment when its article was published.

The New Arab also noted that Britain and France announced joint strikes on Jan. 3 against an underground facility that the Islamic State was said to use to store weapons, a sign that other Western governments are also targeting the group in Syria.

Neither outlet gave a count of the targets hit on Saturday or reported U.S. casualties from the new strikes, and the New Arab said the number of Islamic State fighters killed in the December round was unclear.