The U.S. has carried out another round of retaliatory strikes against the Islamic State in Syria following an attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in the country.
The large-scale strikes, conducted by the U.S. with partner forces, took place around 12:30 p.m. ET, according to U.S. Central Command. They hit multiple Islamic State targets across Syria.
Saturday’s strikes are part of a broader operation that forms part of the President’s response to the deadly ISIS attack in Palmyra last month, which killed Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, the civilian interpreter.
“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Saturday.
A day earlier, Syrian officials said their security forces had arrested the military leader of IS’s operations in the Levant.
The U.S. military stated that Saturday’s strikes were conducted with partner forces but did not specify which forces participated.
The Trump administration is calling the response to the Palmyra attacks Operation Hawkeye Strike. Both Torres-Tovar and Howard were members of the Iowa National Guard.
It launched on Dec. 19 with strikes that hit 70 targets across central Syria containing IS infrastructure and weapons.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has been the U.S.’s main partner in the fight against IS in Syria for years, but since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, Washington has increasingly coordinated with the central government in Damascus.
Syria recently joined the global coalition against IS.