DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks are ‘a declaration of vengeance’, and ‘lots’ of fighters have been killed.
Published On 20 Dec 2025
The United States military is “striking very seriously against ISIS [ISIL] strongholds in Syria”, President Donald Trump says, a week after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in Syria’s Palmyra city/
“Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria… I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
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Trump said that Syria’s government, which was formed after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, was “fully in support” of the US military operation.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also responded, repeating its commitment to combating ISIL.
“The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates its steadfast commitment to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory, and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat,” the Ministry said in the statement shared on X.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier that the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites”, adding that the operation was named Operation Hawkeye Strike.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said in a post on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.”
Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that the strikes were against dozens of ISIL targets across central Syria.
Al Jazeera’s R