US strikes more than 70 Daesh targets in Syria

• US forces hit over 70 Daesh-linked targets across central Syria.
• Washington says the strikes respond to an attack that killed three Americans.
• President Donald Trump vows harsher retaliation against attackers.

The United States carried out wide-ranging air and ground strikes against Daesh in Syria on Friday, targeting more than 70 sites in what President Donald Trump called a forceful response to a deadly attack on US personnel.

US Central Command said the strikes followed a December 13 assault in Palmyra that killed two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter. Washington said the attack was carried out by a lone gunman linked to Daesh.

- US military response -

In a statement, CENTCOM said US forces “struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria with fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery.”

“The operation employed more than 100 precision munitions targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites,” the command added.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the United States is “inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” warning that those who attack Americans “WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE.”

CENTCOM also said that since the Palmyra attack, US and allied forces have “conducted 10 operations in Syria and Iraq resulting in the deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives,” without identifying specific groups.

- Syrian position and investigation -

Syria’s foreign ministry did not directly comment on the US strikes but said in a post on X that Damascus remains committed to fighting Daesh and “ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory, and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”

Syrian officials said the attacker in Palmyra was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed for his “extremist Islamist ideas,” according to an interior ministry spokesman.

- Victims and broader context -

Those killed in the Palmyra attack were identified as Iowa National Guard sergeants William Howard and Edgar Torres Tovar, along with Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a civilian interpreter from Michigan. Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and top military officer General Dan Caine attended a ceremony this week marking the return of their remains to the United States.

The targeted US personnel were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international mission formed to combat Daesh, which once controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq. While the group was militarily defeated, it continues to operate in parts of Syria, particularly in desert regions.