The U.S. military said it carried out operations in Syria that, it said, killed or captured nearly 25 Islamic State operatives this month after a Dec. 13 ambush near Palmyra killed U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement posted on X that 11 missions were carried out over the past 10 days. The command said the missions followed initial strikes on Dec. 19 that hit 70 Islamic State targets across central Syria, including weapons sites and infrastructure.
In the operations since those strikes, U.S. Central Command said the U.S. military and other regional forces killed at least seven Islamic State members, captured others and eliminated four weapons caches, according to the command. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, said some targets ranged from senior Islamic State figures being closely monitored by U.S. military officials to lower-level fighters.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said in the statement: “We will not relent.” Cooper added that the command was “steadfast in commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to U.S. and regional security.”
The same official said the growing collaboration between the United States and Syria’s relatively new government helped U.S. forces attack Islamic State in areas where they had previously not operated. The official compared the developing cooperation to U.S. efforts with Iraq a decade ago against Islamic State, saying the goal, as in Iraq, is eventually to hand over the effort fully to Syrians.
The latest operations came after the Dec. 13 ambush near Palmyra occurred while American and Syrian security officials were gathered for a meeting over lunch, the U.S. account said. It said two members of the Iowa National Guard and a civilian interpreter from Michigan were killed, while three other U.S. troops and members of Syria’s security forces were wounded.
The AP report said the gunman who carried out the ambush was killed and had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard. Syrian officials said he was reassigned recently because of suspicions he might be affiliated with Islamic State.
The initial retaliatory strike on Islamic State targets in Syria included fighter jets from Jordan, the report said, and was described as a major test for warming U.S.-Syria ties after the ouster of Syria’s autocratic leader Bashar Assad last year. The report also said President Donald Trump described Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, as “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”