The US carried out large-scale strikes against ISIS targets in Syria on Saturday tied to an ongoing retaliatory marketing campaign dubbed “Operation Hawkeye Strike.”
“Today, at approximately 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, alongside partner forces, conducted large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets across Syria,” US Central Command mentioned in launch posted on X.
Operation Hawkeye Strike, named for the 2 US troopers killed from the “Hawkeye State” of Iowa, started on December 19, 2025 as a direct response to the deadly assault carried out by an ISIS gunman in Palmyra, Syria that killed two US troopers and one civilian interpreter simply six days prior.
The troopers had been identified as 25-year-old Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar of Des Moines, Iowa, and 29-year-old Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown, Iowa. Both had been members of the Iowa National Guard, which started deploying roughly 1,800 troops to the Middle East earlier this yr as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the US mission to defeat ISIS. Three different Iowa National Guard members had been injured in the assault.
A US official instructed NCS that Saturday’s operation fired over 90 precision munitions to hit greater than 35 targets, utilizing over two dozen aircrafts.
“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” US Central Command mentioned in the discharge.
Hundreds of American troops continue to be deployed to Syria as part of the US’ longstanding mission to fight ISIS, a mission that started when ISIS quickly took management of a big chunk of Syria and Iraq in the mid 2010s. Subsequently, US and associate operations, paired with a change in regime in Syria, largely eradicated that territorial management.
NCS has beforehand reported that the aim of Operation Hawkeye is to ship an enormous blow to ISIS remnants in Syria and their capability to pose a risk to US forces in the area.
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