SRINAGAR: The United States carried out airstrikes on dozens of Islamic State (IS) positions across central Syria in retaliation for a recent deadly attack on American personnel, the BBC reported on Saturday.
According to the Pentagon, the strikes targeted IS fighters, infrastructure and weapons facilities as part of an operation named Operation Hawkeye Strike. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the action was aimed at delivering swift retribution and warned that further strikes could follow.
“This is not the start of a war but a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said in a statement shared on social media, adding that US forces would continue to pursue IS militants.
Two officials, speaking anonymously, told news agencies that multiple IS targets were hit across central Syria. An official quoted by The Associated Press said the operation involved F-15 Eagle fighter jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground-attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters. The Pentagon declined to disclose additional operational details.
The airstrikes came days after an attack in the Syrian desert near Palmyra, where two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed and three other soldiers wounded. The US military said the assailant attacked a joint American-Syrian convoy before being shot dead.
The US Army later identified the deceased soldiers as Sgt Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, both serving with the Iowa National Guard. The civilian interpreter was named as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said the attacker was a member of Syrian security forces suspected of having links to or sympathies with Islamic State.
President Donald Trump had earlier pledged “very serious retaliation” following the attack, while noting that Syrian forces were operating alongside US troops. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told media that the latest strikes fulfilled that promise, stating that the president was acting on his commitment to respond to the killing of US personnel by IS in Syria.
