Nearly 25 Islamic State operatives were killed or captured in Syria after the United States carried out a series of missions over the past 10 days, U.S. Central Command said. The U.S. said the operations followed an earlier ambush in which two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter were killed near Palmyra, according to U.S. officials.
Central Command said in a statement on X that it conducted 11 missions over the period and that the campaign followed initial strikes on Dec. 19. The command said those first strikes hit 70 targets across central Syria after the U.S. military identified Islamic State weapons sites and infrastructure, with some of the fighter jets involved coming from Jordan.
In the missions that followed, Central Command said the U.S. military and other forces from the region killed at least seven Islamic State members, captured others, and eliminated four weapons caches. The operations, the command said, ranged from senior Islamic State members under close monitoring by U.S. officials to lower-level foot soldiers.
Central Command said its actions were tied to the Dec. 13 ambush near the ancient city of Palmyra. U.S. officials said the attack occurred while American and Syrian security officials had gathered for a meeting over lunch, and they said two members of the Iowa National Guard and a civilian interpreter from Michigan were killed. They also said three other U.S. troops and members of Syria’s security forces were wounded.
The gunman who was killed had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard and had recently been reassigned because of suspicions he might be affiliated with the Islamic State group, Syrian officials said. The account was presented by U.S. officials as part of the sequence that led to the subsequent U.S. strike campaign.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said the U.S. “will not relent” and “is steadfast in commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to U.S. and regional security.” The statement linked the operational tempo to continued partnership work, while U.S. officials described the targets as spanning both leadership and personnel in the militant group.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, said the United States and Syria’s government were collaborating more closely than before. The official said that cooperation allowed U.S. forces to attack Islamic State in parts of the country where they previously did not operate, and compared the approach to the kind of collaboration the U.S. had with Iraq a decade ago against Islamic State.
The official also said the goal of such cooperation is to ultimately hand over the effort fully to Syrians. U.S. officials described the latest operations as building on warming ties between the United States and Syria since last year’s ouster of former autocratic leader Bashar Assad, and they said the initial retaliatory strike included fighter jets from Jordan as a test of the relationship.
President Donald Trump said Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” according to an account of Trump’s comment. The U.S. military’s statement framed the subsequent missions as part of its response to the Dec. 13 ambush and as part of an ongoing effort aimed at reducing Islamic State’s ability to strike U.S. personnel and regional partners.