The US military hit back at ISIS after an attack that killed three Americans in Syria, while the Trump administration weighs how to continue to support a struggling new government there.
The massive US attack in Syria killed at least five ISIS terrorists, including a cell leader, a Syrian human rights group said.
The US military unloaded on more than 70 targets across the country, in a bombardment that brought to bear F-15 fighter jets, A-10 Warthogs, Apache helicopters and missiles, US Central Command reported.
The strikes killed “at least five members” of ISIS in Syria’s Deir Az Zor province, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the AFP. He added that the fatalities also included the head of a drone operations cell.
US Central Command said 10 joint operations had resulted in the “deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives.”
President Trump at a campaign event in North Carolina Friday night said he had ordered a “massive strike on the terrorists that killed our three great patriots last week.”
“It was very successful. It was precision,” Trump said. “We hit every site flawlessly and we are restoring peace through strength all over the world.
“We hit the ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup after their decimation by the Trump Administration five years ago. We hit ’em hard.”
He called the two troops and an interpreter killed by an ISIS gunman “great people.”
Three Americans were killed in Syria on Dec. 13 when US and Syrian forces were ambushed on patrol in the ancient city of Palmyra. The “insider” attack came as a US force of about 1,000 is stationed there to support a new Syrian government that is low on resources and barely in control of its territory.
The Jordanian military also participated in the operation with fighter aircraft, according to US Central Command, which said “Operation Hawkeye Strike” involved more than 100 precision munitions going after ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites.
