The US military announced Saturday that it had carried out strikes on over 30 Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria this month, continuing efforts to pressure the militants following a deadly attack on American troops last year, AFP reported.
The operations coincided with recent efforts by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) to transfer thousands of IS detainees from Syria to Iraq. These individuals had previously been held for years in prisons managed by Kurdish-led forces, the report stated.
US forces “conducted 10 strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria… to sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network,” a CENTCOM statement said, using another acronym for IS.
The air strikes, carried out between February 3 and February 12, hit IS “infrastructure and weapons storage targets”, it said.
The forces additionally conducted “five strikes against an ISIS communication site, critical logistics node, and weapons storage facilities” between January 27 and February 2, the statement said.
Washington has attributed the December 13 ambush in Palmyra, which killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter, to an Islamic State fighter.
Syria’s interior ministry stated that the IS gunman had been part of the security forces and was scheduled for dismissal due to extremist views.
In response, the US carried out Operation Hawkeye Strike.
“More than 50 ISIS terrorists have been killed or captured and over 100 ISIS infrastructure targets have been struck with hundreds of precision munitions during two months of targeted operations,” the CENTCOM statement added, AFP reported.
On Friday, CENTCOM announced that it had finished transferring over 5,700 detained Islamic State suspects from 61 countries from Syria to Iraq.
The operation started last month after Damascus regained control of territory around the prisons from Kurdish-led forces, raising concerns about the fate of the IS prisoners and prompting US intervention.
The territorial defeat of the jihadist group in Syria in 2019 was led by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, alongside the US-led anti-IS coalition.
Washington has, however, drawn close to Syria’s new authorities, recently saying the purpose of its alliance with the Kurdish forces was largely over, AFP reported.
As Damascus seeks to extend its control over all of Syria, US forces confirmed on Thursday their withdrawal from Al-Tanf base near Syria’s border with Jordan and Iraq.
