The United States on Friday launched airstrikes against more than 70 Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack that killed two US soldiers and an interpreter in Palmyra last week.
The US military’s Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for the Middle East, said on social media that US forces “have commenced a large-scale strike against ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria.”
Syrian state television reported that strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces as well as in the Jabal al-Amour area near Palmyra.
It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by IS as launching points for its operations in the region.”
A Pentagon official told the Associated Press that the attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle fighter jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters.
“Earlier today, US forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on US forces that occurred on December 13 in Palmyra, Syria,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” he continued. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.”
