U.S. says it struck Islamic State targets in Syria

The U.S. military said on Friday (December 19, 2025) it carried out massive air strikes on Islamic State targets inside Syria, in retaliation for the killing of two American soldiers last week.

American fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery stationed in Syria fired more than 100 munitions at more than 70 suspected Islamic State locations across central Syria, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement.

“Earlier today, U.S. forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on U.S. forces that occurred on December 13th in Palmyra, Syria,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote in a social media post. But he signalled that the attack was a one-off retaliaton rather than the beginning of a new prolonged campaign. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.”

Jordanian forces assisted the American troops in carrying out the attack, according to the Central Command.

President Donald Trump, who had earlier said he would respond to the killing, said Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly Abu Muhammad al-Jolani), was fully on board. “The United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post. “We are striking very strongly against ISIS strongholds in Syria, a place soaked in blood which has many problems, but one that has a bright future if ISIS can be eradicated. The Government of Syria, led by a man who is working very hard to bring Greatness back to Syria, and is fully in support,” he added.

Two U.S. soldiers and one civilian interpreter were killed in the central Syrian city of Palmyra, which was once briefly held by the Islamic State, when they came under an ambush on December 13. These were the first American casualties since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024. The U.S. has some 1,000 troops in Syria, who, according to Washington, have been deployed as part of its counter-terror operations.

No group has claimed responsibility for the gun attack, but U.S. officials claimed that the Islamic State was responsible. The Islamic State, which once controlled huge swathes of territories, stretching from Deir Ez Zour in eastern Syria to Mosul in northern Iraq, lost its physical caliphate by 2018 due to sustained military campaigns by Kurdish and Shia militias as well as Syrian and Iraqi governments, backed by Russia, Iran and the U.S. But the group continues to operate as clandestine cells in several parts of Syria and Iraq, and continue to radicalise Muslim youth through online propaganda.

The attack on American troops and the U.S. retaliatory strikes took place at a time when Mr. Sharaa is trying to centralise authority in the hands of his government in Damascus even as sectarian and ethnic tensions persist across the country.

Mr. Hegseth warned on Friday that the U.S. would continue military strikes if its troops come under further attacks. “As we said directly following the savage attack, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” he wrote in his post.