The U.S. army launched retaliatory strikes on Friday towards ISIS targets in Syria, in line with a press release issued by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth on social media.
Greater than 70 ISIS targets have been struck in Friday’s assaults, in line with a U.S. official by a mixture of fighter jets, assault helicopters, and artillery hearth.
Hegseth mentioned “Operation Hawkeye Strike” was carried out in Syria “to remove ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons websites in direct response to the assault on U.S. forces that occurred on Dec. 13 in Palmyra, Syria.
CENTCOM forces launched fighter jets, assault helicopters and different property to conduct a large-scale strike in Syria, Dec. 19, 2025.
@CENTCOM/X
“This isn’t the start of a warfare — It’s a declaration of vengeance,” mentioned Hegseth. “America of America, beneath President Trump’s management, won’t ever hesitate and by no means relent to defend our individuals.”
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth listens throughout an occasion on the State Division, Dec. 8, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The strikes in Syria are in retaliation for the deaths on Saturday of three People in Palmyra, Syria, by what CENTCOM mentioned was a lone ISIS gunman who was later killed.
President Donald Trump mentioned the strikes have been “inflicting very severe retaliation, simply as I promised, on the murderous terrorists accountable” for the assault.
Trump added that the strikes have been taking place “towards ISIS strongholds in Syria” and that Syria’s new authorities is “is absolutely in assist.”
CENTCOM forces launched fighter jets, assault helicopters and different property to conduct a large-scale strike in Syria, Dec. 19, 2025.
@CENTCOM/X
Reviews from inside Syria, together with the monitoring company the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that explosions had been heard in areas of the nation.
The three fatalities in Saturday’s assault in Palmyra included two Iowa Nationwide Guardsmen and a U.S. civilian interpreter, three different Iowa Nationwide Guardsmen have been injured within the assault.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after stepping off Air Power One at Joint Base Andrews, December 17, 2025 upon return from Dover Air Power Base in Delaware.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Friday’s large-scale retaliatory strikes concerned F-15 and A-10 fighter jets, assault helicopters and the usage of HIMARS rocket artillery, in line with a U.S. official, who mentioned that they had struck 70 targets together with “ISIS weapon areas and infrastructure in central Syria.
CENTCOM forces launched fighter jets, assault helicopters and different property to conduct a large-scale strike in Syria, Dec. 19, 2025.
@CENTCOM/X
The official added that the retaliatory strikes have been meant to ship “a major blow” to ISIS remnant forces in Syria, their infrastructure and to remove ISIS weapons areas.
In response to the most recent U.S. intelligence estimate there are nonetheless between 1,500 to three,000 ISIS militants nonetheless working in Syria and Iraq.
Forward of Friday’s strikes the official mentioned that U.S. companions led 10 operations, with U.S. army assist, that captured or killed 23 ISIS militants. The raids additionally helped glean intelligence that knowledgeable future focusing on operations mentioned the official.
On this Jan. 9, 2025, file photograph, US forces patrol in Syria’s northeastern metropolis Qamishli, within the Hasakeh province.
Delil Souleiman/AFP through Getty Photographs, FILE
There are at present 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria, the majority of them positioned in japanese Syria, with the persevering with mission stop a resurgence of ISIS which was defeated militarily in 2019.
Between 100 to 150 of the U.S. troops in Syria are primarily based at At Tanq Garrison, a distant outpost positioned on Syria’s border with Jordan. The Iowa Nationwide Guardsmen focused in Saturday’s assault have been primarily based at that outpost, which was visited on Friday by Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, in line with a supply aware of the go to.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth salute as members of the army carry switch circumstances of the stays of Iowa Nationwide Guard members killed in Syria, Sgt. Edgar Torres Tovar and Sgt. William Howard at Dover Air Power Base in Dover, Delaware, Dec. 17, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The Iowa Nationwide Guardsmen focused in Saturday’s assault have been primarily based at that outpost, which was visited on Friday by Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, in line with a supply aware of the go to.
Cooper acknowledged the troops there for his or her actions beneath hearth and in addition mentioned the strikes that have been to happen on Friday.
Sgt. William “Nate” Howard, Sgt. Edgar Torres Tovar, and their U.S. civilian interpreter, Ayad Mansoor Sakat, have been killed in an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman on Saturday as they have been finishing up a key chief engagement, in line with a CENTCOM assertion.
They have been the primary U.S. army fight deaths in Syria since 2019.
Within the wake of Saturday’s ambush, U.S. Central Command supplied info of the frequency of anti-ISIS operations in Syria noting that since July the U.S. and its accomplice forces had carried out 80 operations towards ISIS targets and detained 119 ISIS militants and killed 14.
In November alone, U.S. and Syrian forces collectively destroyed 15 ISIS weapons caches in southern Syria, it mentioned.
