Trump says US launched large-scale attacks on ISIL in Syria

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks are ‘a declaration of vengeance’, and ‘lots’ of fighters have been killed.

President Donald Trump says that the United States military is “striking very seriously against ISIS [ISIL] strongholds in Syria”, a week after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in Syria’s Palmyra city.

“Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria… I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

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Trump said that Syria’s government, which was formed after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late-2024, was “fully in support” of the US military operation.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs  also responded, repeating its commitment to combating ISIL (ISIS) and intensifying military operations against the group.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said earlier that the strikes targeted “ISIS [ISIL] fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” and said the operation was named Operation Hawkeye Strike.

“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said in a post on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” he said.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity told the Reuters news agency that the strikes were against dozens of ISIL targets across central Syria.

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said that the social media posts from Trump and Hegseth show that that the White House is reiterating the point that the killing of US personnel in Syria “was going to be met with a comparable response”.

Details on what targets had been hit and the number of people injured or killed were not yet known but that the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) has said it will be releasing more information soon.

Jordan also said that it appeared that the Syrian government had “signed off” on the US operation.

“We don’t know whether any Syrian defence forces are taking part in this retaliatory action but the US does consider it important to try to help Syria move beyond the Assad regime’s years of dictatorship,” Jordan said.

“In order to do so, getting rid of what the US considers a national security threat – members of ISIL – is a part of helping Syria move into its next phase as a sovereign country,” she added.

Three Americans, including two US National Guard members and a civilian interpreter, were killed last weekend 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 US military. Three other US soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

About 1,000 US troops are stationed in Syria as part of a years-long operation targeting the remnants of ISIL forces in the region.

A US-led coalition has also carried out air strikes and ground operations in Syria targeting ISIL suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces.

Syria’s government, which is now led by former rebels who toppled the al-Assad regime, has been cooperating in the US-led fight against ISIL, reaching an agreement last month on cooperation when the country’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House to meet President Trump.