US Strikes Over 70 Islamic State Targets in Syria After Deadly Palmyra Attack

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - The United States carried out extensive military strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, hitting more than seventy targets across central parts of the country, in what President Donald Trump described as “very serious retaliation” for a deadly attack on US forces near Palmyra.

In a statement released Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American forces struck Islamic State positions at multiple locations using fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery. The strikes followed the Dec. 13 attack in the ancient city of Palmyra, where a lone Islamic State gunman killed two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter before being shot dead.

CENTCOM said the operation involved more than one hundred precision-guided munitions and targeted known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites. “The operation employed more than 100 precision munitions targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites,” the command said.

President Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the United States was delivering on its warning. “We are inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” he wrote, adding that those who attack Americans “WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE.”

According to CENTCOM, US and allied forces have conducted ten operations in Syria and Iraq since the Palmyra attack, resulting in the deaths or detention of twenty-three militant operatives, without specifying their affiliations.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said American forces launched OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in direct response to the attack. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said, adding: “If you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”

While Syria’s foreign ministry did not directly comment on the US strikes, it said in a post on X that Damascus remains committed to fighting the Islamic State group and ensuring it has “no safe havens on Syrian territory,” pledging to intensify military operations wherever the group poses a threat.

The Americans killed in the Palmyra attack were identified as Iowa National Guard sergeants William Howard and Edgar Torres Tovar, along with Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a civilian interpreter from Michigan. A ceremony marking the return of their remains to the United States was held Wednesday, attended by President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and top US military officials.

The attack marked the first such incident since the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December last year. A Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman said the perpetrator was a member of the security forces who had been due for dismissal over what he described as “extremist Islamist ideas.”

US personnel targeted in the attack were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international campaign launched in 2014 to combat the Islamic State group, which once controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq. Although the group was militarily defeated with the backing of international air power and local ground forces, it continues to maintain a presence, particularly in Syria’s desert regions.

US forces remain deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast and at the Al-Tanf base near the Jordanian border. The Pentagon announced in April that the number of US troops in Syria would be reduced in the coming months, while US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said in June that Washington plans to eventually scale back to a single base in the country.
The latest strikes underscore Washington’s warning that attacks on US personnel will draw swift military retaliation, even as the Islamic State continues to pose a persistent security challenge in Syria.