At least five ISIS militants killed in U.S. 'retaliatory' strikes

A week after an attack that killed three Americans in Syria, the United States carried out overnight strikes from Friday to Saturday on Islamic State (ISIS) ‘’strongholds,’’ killing at least five of the group’s members, according to a local organization.

More than 70 targets were hit across the country. Former U.S. president Donald Trump described the operation as a ‘’very heavy retaliation’’ in response to the attack, which Washington blamed on ISIS. The attack killed two U.S. service members and an interpreter on Dec. 13 in the Palmyra desert region.

’’We are hitting ISIS strongholds very hard,’’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform shortly after the Pentagon announced the launch of a ‘’massive’’ operation. According to U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the strikes began at 4:00 p.m. Washington time (9:00 p.m. GMT) and involved fighter jets, helicopters, and artillery.

In Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria, one of the five people killed was the head of an ISIS cell responsible for drone operations, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The strikes also targeted ISIS cells in the Homs, Raqqa, and Deir Ezzor regions, according to a security source.

No safe haven

The attack on U.S. personnel was carried out by a member of the Syrian security forces, placing Damascus in a difficult position as it seeks closer ties with Washington and participates in the international coalition against ISIS. Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was on the verge of being dismissed because of his ‘’extremist Islamist views.’’

After overthrowing Bashar al-Assad and dismantling the former military and security apparatus, interim Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa integrated allied groups into the new army, including some foreign fighters. This marks the first such attack reported in Syria since he came to power.

Following the U.S. strikes, the Syrian foreign ministry said the government ‘’reaffirms its strong commitment to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe haven on Syrian territory,’’ without directly referring to the U.S. operation.

Continued operations

ISIS previously controlled the Palmyra region before being defeated in Syria by an international coalition in 2019. Despite its defeat, fighters who retreated into the vast Syrian desert continue to carry out occasional attacks.

Centcom said that since Saturday’s attack on U.S. troops, American and allied forces have conducted 10 operations in Syria and Iraq, resulting in the deaths or detention of 23 ISIS members.

American forces in Syria are mainly deployed in Kurdish-controlled areas in the north, as well as in the al-Tanf base near the Jordanian border. The return to power of Donald Trump, who is generally skeptical of American troop deployments overseas, raises questions about the future of this military presence. The Pentagon announced in April that the U.S. would cut the number of American soldiers in Syria by half, although the current official number is not publicly known.