By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
Dec 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on U.S. personnel, U.S. officials said.
A U.S.-led coalition had already been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting Islamic State suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces.
President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate after a suspected ISIS attack killed U.S. personnel last weekend in Syria.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” and said the operation was “OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE.”
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” he added.
Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the U.S. was inflicting “very serious retaliation.”
Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strikes hit dozens of Islamic State targets across central Syria. They were carried out by F-15 and A-10 jets, along with Apache helicopters and HIMARS rocket systems, one of the officials added.
Syria reiterated its steadfast commitment to fighting Islamic State and ensuring that it has “no safe havens on Syrian territory,” according to a statement by the foreign ministry.
Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the U.S. military. Three other U.S. soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
About 1,000 U.S. troops remain in Syria.
The Syrian Interior Ministry has described the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathizing with Islamic State.
Syria’s government is now led by former rebels who toppled leader Bashar al-Assad last year after a 13-year civil war, and includes members of Syria’s former Al Qaeda branch who broke with the group and clashed with Islamic State.
Syria has been cooperating with a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, reaching an agreement last month when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Diane Craft and Edmund Klamann)
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