US forces unleashed a wave of airstrikes against ISIS in Syria on Friday, the White House confirms.
The move delivers on President Trump’s promise to retaliate for the killing of two US Army soldiers and an interpreter during a terrorist ambush in the country’s central region last weekend.
American forces carried out a wave of air and ground attacks in central Syria, striking numerous locations linked to ISIS.
‘Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria, whose beautiful souls I welcomed home to American soil earlier this week in a very dignified ceremony, I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social Friday evening.
The strikes are reportedly being carried out by US Airforce F-15E Strike Eagles and A-10C Thunderbolts along side Army helicopters and Artillery rocket systems.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posting on X, calling it ‘Operation Hawkeye Strike,’ and labeling the actions as a ‘declaration of vengeance.’
Military aircraft and artillery were reportedly used to level arms storage sites and other facilities associated with the group, an American source with knowledge told the New York Times.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity due to the classified nature of the operation, calling it an expected ‘massive attack.’
US forces unleashed a wave of airstrikes against ISISin Syria on Friday
American forces carried out a wave of air and ground attacks in central Syria, striking numerous locations linked to ISIS
Islamic State fighter pictured waving a flag while standing on captured government fighter jet in Raqqa, Syria
The Secretary of War doubling down on their retaliatory strikes.
‘Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,’ Hegseth added.
Across Syria, social media accounts on X report explosions and across the country, heard from Palmyra to Deir Ezzor.
Strikes are also reported in the Eastern Raqqa desert according to accounts.
The strikes hit dozens of targets the military connected to ISIS — including weapons storage locations and infrastructure.
The soldiers who were killed last Saturday were the first Americans to die in the country since Bashar al-Assad was removed from power last year. They were helping fight the Islamic State near Palmyra, a city in central Syria.
US officials named the two troops who died in Syria as Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, from Des Moines, Iowa, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa.
Friday’s attacks by US forces point to a major step-up in military action in Syria, even as the administration maintains a much smaller footprint of roughly 1,000 troops and prepares for additional operations in the days ahead.
1,000 troops is half of what is used to be at the start of the year.
The US still has several hundred service members stationed in Syria, carrying on an anti-ISIS campaign that started in the mid-2010s after the group seized wide areas of Syria and Iraq.
Jordanian and Syrian Armed forces are reportedly helping out the US Air-Force and army in tonight’s strikes against ISIS sites across the country.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa visited the White House last month in what was the first visit to the White House by a Syrian head of state since 1946.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said Al-Sharaa supported the strikes.
The president said terrorists who threaten or attack the US ‘will be hit harder than you have ever been hit before.’
