The massive US attack in Syria killed at least five ISIS terrorists, including a cell leader, a Syrian human rights group said.
The US military unloaded on more than 70 targets across the country, in a bombardment that brought to bear F-15 fighter jets, A-10 Warthogs, Apache helicopters and missiles, US Central Command reported.
The strikes killed “at least five members” of ISIS in Syria’s Deir Az Zor province, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the AFP. He added that the fatalities also included the head of a drone operations cell.
US Central Command said 10 joint operations had resulted in the “deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives.”
President Trump at a campaign event in North Carolina Friday night said he had ordered a “massive strike on the terrorists that killed our three great patriots last week.”
“It was very successful. It was precision,” Trump said. “We hit every site flawlessly and we are restoring peace through strength all over the world.
“We hit the ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup after their decimation by the Trump Administration five years ago. We hit ’em hard.”
He called the two troops and an interpreter killed by an ISIS gunman “great people.”
Three Americans were killed in Syria on Dec. 13 when US and Syrian forces were ambushed on patrol in the ancient city of Palmyra. The “insider” attack came as a US force of about 1,000 is stationed there to support a new Syrian government that is low on resources and barely in control of its territory.
The Jordanian military also participated in the operation with fighter aircraft, according to US Central Command, which said “Operation Hawkeye Strike” involved more than 100 precision munitions going after ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites.
Trump had vowed immediately after the attack on US troops to bring “very serious retaliation.”
The attack on US and Syrian government forces also came a day before two ISIS “inspired” shooters opened fire, killing 15 during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia.
The incidents revealed disturbing information about ISIS, said Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Armed Services committee.
“It appears that ISIS has never been eliminated, and now they’re beginning to grow in strength and reconstitute themselves,” warned Reed this week.
There was little doubt the administration would hit back. The question was how, given that the Trump Administration is seeking to prop up the new government headed by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and that the massive territory seized by the Islamic State in 2014 has been recaptured.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” vowed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Friday.
Even before it happened, one key Republican, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), predicted the attack would bring a major reprisal from the US.
The White House has pledged to keep Syria from becoming a terror base.
“I think they’ll just simply find out what shock and awe is,” Rounds told The Post. “We do not take lightly to our men and women being put in harm’s way, or losing a young man or woman when they’re in trying to keep peace,” he said.
US Iowa National Guard members Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tover, 25, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, were killed in the ambush along with interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, 54, when an ISIS terrorist opened fire.
Trump attended the dignified transfer of the two Guard troops at Dover Air Base this week.
Syrian sources have said, and US officials have confirmed, that the ambush in Palmyra was an “insider” attack, which prompted a push to identify ISIS targets in central Syria.
“I have not seen any evidence that somehow the government was responsible since this was … more of an insider event,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Trump said the Syrian government was “fully in support” of the US retaliatory strikes.
“Our president would want to have some sort of forceful action and call it retaliation,” said Paul Pillar, a longtime intelligence official and fellow with the Quincy Institute and the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University
With Trump hosting al-Sharaa at the White House in November, and Congress voting Wednesday to lift Assad-era sanctions — a US response that drags on risks undermining the regime.
“It is extremely difficult,” said Pat Clawson of The Washington Institute. “This is a case where somebody had infiltrated into the security forces of the Syrians. Responding to that is going to be tough.”
“The real core problem is the Damascus authorities are so weak they have to let in anybody who wants to join their forces.”
In addition to manpower shortages for al-Sharaa’s government, there are knotty issues like 9,000 ISIS prisoners being held under guard by stretched-thin Syrian Defense Forces.
“President Trump is committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors. This is a key element of the President’s vision for a peaceful and prosperous Middle East,” said a senior administration official.
“A stable and sovereign Syria is critical for the region’s stability. Syria must not become a base for terrorism or pose a threat to its neighbors and the wider world.
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