The US military said Tuesday that nearly 25 operatives of the Islamic State group were killed or captured in Syria this month following an ambush that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement on X that 11 missions were carried out over the past 10 days and followed initial strikes against IS weapons sites and infrastructure on Dec. 19, which hit 70 targets across central Syria.
In the operations since, the US military and other forces from the region, including Syria, killed at least seven IS members, captured others and eliminated four weapons caches, US Central Command said.
“We will not relent,” Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the command, said in the statement. “We are steadfast in commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to US and regional security.”
Targets ranged from senior IS members who were being closely monitored by military officials to lower-level foot soldiers, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The official said a growing collaboration between the US and Syria’s relatively new government meant that US forces were able to attack IS in areas of the country where they previously did not operate. Syrian forces were the driving force behind some of the missions against the militant group this year, the official added.
The official compared the growing cooperation to that between the US and Iraq in fighting IS a decade ago and said the goal, like in Iraq, is to ultimately hand over the effort fully to the Syrians.
The latest operations followed a Dec. 13 ambush that occurred near the ancient city of Palmyra while American and Syrian security officials had gathered for a meeting over lunch. Two members of the Iowa National Guard and a civilian interpreter from Michigan were killed, while three other US troops and members of Syria’s security forces were wounded.
The gunman, who was killed, had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard and recently had been reassigned because of suspicions he might be affiliated with IS, Syrian officials said.
The initial retaliatory strike on IS targets in Syria, which included fighter jets from Jordan, was a major test for the warming ties between the US and Syria since last year’s ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad.
President Donald Trump said Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.” (AP)
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