(Washington) Donald Trump said Friday that the Islamic State group was targeted by “very heavy retaliation” in Syria, after an attack that cost the lives of two American soldiers and an interpreter almost a week ago.
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“We are striking very hard against ISIS strongholds,” the American president wrote on Truth Social, shortly after the Pentagon announced the start of a “massive” operation.
The US military has begun an operation in Syria to “eliminate Islamic State group fighters, infrastructure and weapons sites,” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on X.
It is a “direct response” and a “declaration of revenge” after the attack which cost the lives of two American soldiers and a translator in Syria on Saturday, he added, asserting: “Today we hunted down and killed enemies. Lots of enemies. And we will continue. »
The US military command for the Middle East, CENTCOM, said fighter planes and helicopters took part in the strikes, with an illustrative video.
Strikes were carried out in the desert near the city of Homs and in rural areas near Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, a Syrian security source told AFP.
The explosions were followed by “bursts of medium-caliber gunfire in the desert” southwest of Raqqa, a provincial official said, adding that these are areas under the control of the Syrian government.
The latter “reiterates its strong commitment to fighting IS and ensuring that it does not benefit from any refuge on Syrian territory,” said the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement published on X shortly after the American strikes, without mentioning them directly.
First time
The man who killed three Americans in the desert region of Palmyra has been identified as a member of the Syrian security forces.
This is the first time that such an event has been reported in Syria since the takeover, a year ago, of an Islamist coalition which made a rapprochement with the United States.
The Islamic State jihadist group had controlled the Palmyra region before being defeated in Syria by an international coalition in 2019.
Despite its defeat, its fighters withdrawn into the vast Syrian desert continue to carry out attacks occasionally.
During the visit of the Syrian interim president, Ahmad al-Shareh, to Washington last month, Damascus joined the international anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States.
American forces in Syria are notably deployed in areas under Kurdish control in the north, as well as in the Al-Tanf base, near the Jordanian border.
The return to power of Donald Trump, generally skeptical about the deployment of American soldiers abroad, raises the question of maintaining this military presence.
The Pentagon announced in April that the United States would halve the number of American troops in Syria, the current total strength of which is not officially known.
