(The Hill) — The U.S. military on Saturday carried out “large-scale” strikes against ISIS militants in Syria, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.
CENTCOM forces worked with partners in the region to carry out the strikes.
“The strikes today targeted ISIS throughout Syria as part of our ongoing commitment to root out Islamic terrorism against our warfighters, prevent future attacks, and protect American and partner forces in the region. U.S. and coalition forces remain resolute in pursuing terrorists who seek to harm the United States,” CENTCOM wrote in a statement posted on the social platform X.
“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 statement reads.
The latest strikes mark the second time since Dec. 19 that the U.S. struck ISIS targets in Syria. During the previous strike, 70 targets were hit, including ISIS fighters, weapons sites and infrastructure.
Both strikes, on Dec. 19 and on Saturday, were part of “Operation Hawkeye Strike,” CENTCOM stated.
The initial strikes were in response to the Dec. 13 attack on U.S. service members in Palmyra, Syria, which killed two Iowa National Guard members and an American interpreter. The Guard members were identified as Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and the interpreter was identified as U.S. civilian Ayad Mansoor Sakat of Macomb, Mich. Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were hurt in the attack but were not identified.
The attacker was identified as a lone ISIS group shooter that reportedly infiltrated local security forces.
President Trump promised that ISIS would be met with “very serious” retaliation.
The Pentagon has scaled down the U.S. military presence in Syria as ISIS’s numbers have dropped since their 2019 defeat. Around 1,000 troops remain to prevent an ISIS resurgence, split between outposts in northeast Syria and at Al-Tanf base in the southeast.
Last month, Trump defended keeping U.S. troops in Syria, saying “we’re trying to make sure that there’s going to be … peace in the Middle East, and Syria is a big part of it.”
Trump has also shown strong support for Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took over following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Trump insisted that al-Sharaa and the Syrian government were not involved in the attack.
Al-Sharaa’s government has cooperated with the U.S. in countering ISIS and other terror groups in Syria. This is one of the eight benchmarks mapped out in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to prevent being met with new or renewed sanctions.