US strikes ISIS targets in Syria in retaliation for killing 3 Americans

The US military has launched strikes against Islamic State group infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria, officials said Friday, following an attack on US and partner forces in Syria last week that killed three Americans. 

President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate Saturday after two US Army soldiers and a civilian US interpreter were killed in the attack, which the Department of Defense said occurred during a counterterrorism engagement. 

Trump announced Friday on Truth Social that the US was “inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible” for the deaths.

“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,” he said in the post. 

The goal of the operation was to hit places where ISIS is trying to reconstitute and to root out those forces and destroy their locations on a large scale, according to a US official. 

The U.S. military used A-10s, F-16s, Apache helicopters and HIMARS while Jordanian F-16s also provided support, the official said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that the strikes killed “lots” of “enemies.”

“President Trump told the world that the United States would retaliate for the killing of our heroes by ISIS in Syria, and he is delivering on that promise,” Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said Friday.

Three other US personnel were wounded in the Dec. 13 attack in Palmyra, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said on X last Saturday. The soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in “support of ongoing counter-ISIS operations,” he said.

The two soldiers killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, according to the US Army. Both were members of the Iowa National Guard. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a US civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.