U.S. forces launched a wave of airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for a recent attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X, announced Operation Hawkeye Strike, which targets ISIS’s fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said. “The United States of America, under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people. 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.”
“Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” he added.
Trump celebrated the strikes in a post on Truth Social, saying the U.S. was inflicting “very serious retaliation” against the “murderous terrorists responsible” for this week’s attack.
“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, going on to praise the work of Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa.
“All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A.,” the president concluded.
ISIS’S DECENTRALIZATION TRANSFORMATION STILL POSES DEADLY CONSEQUENCES
U.S. Central Command described the strikes as “massive,” posting footage of fighter jets, attack helicopters, and other assets deploying at night to engage the group. One official familiar with the matter told CBS News that the retaliatory strikes involved artillery, fighter aircraft, and artillery, and hit dozens of targets across central Syria.
After the collapse of its physical caliphate in 2018, ISIS has shifted to being a decentralized terrorist group more in the fashion of al Qaeda. This has made it more difficult to crack down on the group, which has continued to launch terrorist attacks against civilians across the world.
