{"id":194274,"date":"2025-12-20T17:27:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T17:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-us-has-launched-large-scale-attacks-on-isil-in-syria-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T17:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T17:27:20","slug":"trump-says-us-has-launched-large-scale-attacks-on-isil-in-syria-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-us-has-launched-large-scale-attacks-on-isil-in-syria-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US has launched large-scale attacks on ISIL in Syria – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks are \u2018a declaration of vengeance\u2019, and \u2018lots\u2019 of fighters have been killed.<\/em>
US Strikes in Syria and Their Regional Impact
By <\/span>Lyndal Rowlands<\/a>, Fiona Kelliher<\/a> and News Agencies
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The United States military \u201chit the ISIS [ISIL] thugs in Syria\u201d,\u00a0<\/strong>President Donald Trump has said, a week after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in Syria\u2019s Palmyra city<\/a>.
In a speech Friday evening in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Trump said he \u201cordered a massive strike on the terrorists that killed our three great patriots last week\u201d.
\u201cIt was very successful. It was precision,\u201d the president added. \u201cWe hit every site flawlessly and we are restoring peace through strength all over the world.\u201d
Jordan\u2019s ‍air force ‍also carried out strikes as part of the operation in southern Syria, the army confirmed Saturday.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency that \u201cat least five members\u201d of ISIL were killed in eastern Syria\u2019s Deir Az Zor province, including the leader of a cell responsible for drones in the area.
A Syrian security source told AFP that the US strikes targeted ISIL cells in Syria\u2019s vast Badia desert including in Homs, Deir Az Zor and Raqqa provinces, and did not include ground operations.
Trump separately wrote on his Truth Social platform that Syria\u2019s government, which was formed after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, was \u201cfully in support\u201d of the US military operation.
Syria\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also repeated its commitment to combatting ISIL and said it \u201cinvites the United States and member states of the international coalition to support these efforts\u201d.
\u201cThe Syrian Arab Republic reiterates its steadfast commitment to fighting ISIS 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,\u201d the ministry said in the statement shared on X early on Saturday.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier that US forces had targeted \u201cISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites\u201d, adding that the attack was named Operation Hawkeye Strike.
\u201cThis is not the beginning of a war \u2014 it is a declaration of vengeance,\u201d Hegseth said in a post on social media. \u201cToday, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.\u201d
Al Jazeera\u2019s Ayman Oghanna, reporting from Damascus, said the strikes hit central and northeastern parts of the country. Local sources in Palmyra and Raqqa told Al Jazeera they heard the sounds of fighter jets and huge explosions throughout the night.
One US official said the operation struck 70 targets holding ISIL infrastructure and weapons.<\/p>\n

The US military\u2019s Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for operations in the Middle East, said it deployed \u201cfighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery\u201d to launch \u201cmore than 100 precision munitions targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites\u201d. It did not provide further details on the exact locations or casualties.
CENTCOM said that \u201cthe Jordanian Armed Forces also supported with fighter aircraft\u201d, a claim that the army backed in the day following the strikes.
The army participated \u201cto prevent extremist organisations from exploiting these areas as launching pads to threaten the security of Syria\u2019s neighbours\u201d, it said in a statement.
In February 2015, ISIL burned a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot alive in a cage in Syria after capturing him when his plane crashed a few months earlier. The gruesome killing \u2013 which was captured on video and claimed to be in response to Jordan\u2019s role in the US-led coalition against ISIL \u2013 shocked Amman, which pledged<\/a> that his \u201cblood will not be shed in vain\u201d.
A Swedish man was eventually <\/span>sentenced to life in prison<\/a> in July of this year for his role in the pilot\u2019s death.<\/span>
This week\u2019s operation came as Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa \u201cis trying to rehabilitate his image and the image of Syria,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Oghanna.
US authorities considered al-Sharaa to be a \u201cterrorist\u201d as recently as last month, when the US Department of the Treasury removed him<\/a> from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list ahead of a meeting with Trump.
Al-Sharaa \u201cwants the world to know Syria is no longer safe haven for ISIL \u2026 and he\u2019s also trying to transform his own image in the eyes of the world,\u201d Oghanna said.
This latest episode, however, puts more pressure on the new Syrian government, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the US and Jordan \u201cto work more closely together in eradicating the ISIL threat\u201d, Oghanna said.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, three Americans \u2013 two US National Guard members and a civilian interpreter \u2013 were killed in Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of US and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the US military.
Three US soldiers were also wounded in the attack. The US blamed that attack on ISIL and promised to retaliate.
About 1,000 US soldiers are stationed in Syria as part of a years-long operation targeting the remnants of ISIL forces in the region.
A US-led coalition has also carried out air strikes and ground operations in Syria targeting ISIL suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria\u2019s security forces.
An agreement on cooperation was reached last month when al-Sharaa<\/a>\u00a0met with Trump at the White House.
Although it was unclear whether Syrian defence forces took part in the US operation, the Syrian government appeared to have \u201csigned off\u201d on it, Al Jazeera\u2019s Rosiland Jordan reported earlier from Washington, DC.
\u201cThe US does consider it important to try to help Syria move beyond the Assad regime\u2019s years of dictatorship,\u201d Jordan said.
\u201cIn order to do so, getting rid of what the US considers a national security threat \u2013 members of ISIL \u2013 is part of helping Syria move into its next phase as a sovereign country,\u201d she said.
ISIL\u00a0captured Palmyra<\/a>\u00a0in 2015, at the height of its military ascendancy in Syria, before losing the city 10 months later. During that time, it destroyed several ancient sites and artefacts while using others to stage mass killings.
ISIL was vanquished in Syria in 2018 but still carries out sporadic attacks without controlling any territory inside Syria.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Syria\u00a0marked one year<\/a> since the ousting of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, but the war-ravaged nation continues to face stiff security and economic challenges as it seeks to rebuild and recover after 14 years of ruinous civil war.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks are \u2018a declaration of vengeance\u2019, and \u2018lots\u2019 of fighters have been killed.US Strikes in Syria and Their Regional ImpactBy Lyndal Rowlands, Fiona Kelliher and News AgenciesShareSaveThe United States military \u201chit the ISIS [ISIL] thugs in Syria\u201d,\u00a0President Donald Trump has said, a week after two US soldiers and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}