Donald Trump unleashed ‘large-scale’ strikes across Syria – on the same night that the US justice department published 300,000 pages of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Operation Hawkeye Strike began at 9pm UK time on Friday, with the aim to eliminate ‘ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites’, one year since the country was liberated from the Assad regime.
The attacks came after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed last weekend by a lone gunman from the jihadist group in the city of Palmyra.
Fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery ‘struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria’, the US Central Command said.
One US official said the strikes were carried out by US F-15 and A-10 jets, along with Apache helicopters and HIMARS rocket systems.
Aircraft from Jordan were also involved in what was described as ‘intense bombardment’.
‘This is not the beginning of a war – it is a declaration of vengeance,’ Pete Hegseth said in a social media post.
‘The United States of America, under president Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.’
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that ‘at least five members of the Islamic State group were killed’ in eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, including the leader of a cell responsible for drones in the area.
A Syrian security source told AFP that the US strikes targeted IS cells in the vast Badia desert including in Homs, Deir Ezzor and Raqa provinces, and did not include ground operations.
Most of the targets were in a mountainous area running north of Palmyra including towards Deir Ezzor, the source said, requesting anonymity.
