U.S. launches strikes against ISIS in Syria in retaliation for attack that killed 3 Americans

The U.S. military has launched strikes against the Islamic State group’s infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria, officials said Friday, following an attack on U.S. and partner forces in Syria last week that killed three Americans.

President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate Saturday after two U.S. Army soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed in the attack, which the Defense Department said occurred during a counterterrorism engagement.

Trump announced Friday on Truth Social that the United States was “taking very serious retaliation, as I promised, against the deadly terrorists responsible” for the deaths.

“We are striking very hard against ISIS strongholds in Syria, a bloodied place with many problems, but which has a bright future if ISIS can be eradicated,” he said in his message.

The goal of the operation was to strike places where ISIS is trying to reconstitute itself, root out those forces and destroy their locations on a large scale, according to a U.S. official.

The U.S. military used A-10s, F-16s, Apache helicopters and HIMARS, while Jordanian F-16s also provided support, the official said.

The strikes are expected to last several weeks, or even a month, according to two American officials.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that the strikes had killed “a lot” of “enemies.”

“Earlier today, US forces launched Operation HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure and weapons sites, in direct response to the attack on US forces that took place on December 13 in Palmyra, Syria,” he said.

“This is not the start of a war, this is a declaration of revenge,” Hegseth added.

Additional information on the strikes and total casualties was not immediately available.

“President Trump told the world that the United States would respond to the deaths of our heroes at the hands of ISIS in Syria, and he is keeping that promise,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Friday.

Three other U.S. personnel were injured in the Dec. 13 attack in Palmyra, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said on X last Saturday. The soldiers were “conducting a key engagement with leadership” in “support of ongoing counter-IS operations,” he said.

The two soldiers killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the Iowa National Guard. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.

The shooting near the historic city of Palmyra also injured three U.S. service members and members of the Syrian security forces, before the gunman was killed. The attacker had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security officer two months ago and was recently reassigned due to suspicions that he may be affiliated with ISIS, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Nour al-Din al-Baba said.