WASHINGTON — The Trump administration launched military strikes Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter almost a week ago.
A U.S. official described the strikes as “large-scale,” hitting 70 targets in areas across central Syria with IS infrastructure and weapons. Another U.S. official said more strikes should be expected.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.
The military operation comes as the Trump administration has focused on the Western Hemisphere, building up a naval presence in the Caribbean Sea to target alleged drug-smuggling boats and seize sanctioned oil tankers as part of a pressure campaign on Venezuela’s leader. The U.S. has shifted resources away from the Middle East to further those goals, including moving its most advanced aircraft carrier to South American waters last month.
Trump vowed retaliation
President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in Syria, blaming IS. The slain Americans were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the militant group.
During a speech in North Carolina on Friday evening, the president hailed the operation as a “massive strike” that took out “ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup.”
Trump also issued an all-caps threat, warning IS against attacking American personnel again: “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A.”
The attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters, the U.S. officials said. F-16 fighter jets from Jordan and HIMARS rocket artillery also were used.
U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that American jets, helicopters and artillery employed more than 100 precision munitions on Syrian targets.
How Syria has responded
The attack is a major test for the warming ties between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago. Trump has stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops and said al-Sharaa was “fully in support” of the U.S. effort.
Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement on X following the launch of U.S. strikes said that last week’s attack “underscores the urgent necessity of strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms” and that Syria is committed “to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory and will continue to intensify military operations against it.”
Syrian state television reported that the U.S. strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal al-Amour area near Palmyra. It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by ISIS as launching points for its operations in the region.”
IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. service members, but has claimed responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.”
The Americans who were killed
Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before joining top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer.
The guardsmen killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, also was killed.
The shooting near Palmyra also wounded three other U.S. troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS.
The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.
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