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A US Army AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter prepares to support Operation Hawkeye Strike in the US Central Command area of responsibility. Photo: AFP
DAMASCUS:
A Syria monitor said Saturday that five Islamic State jihadist group members had been killed in US strikes overnight as Jordan confirmed it participated in the raids, after a deadly attack on American troops last weekend.
US forces said they had struck more than 70 IS targets in what President Donald Trump described as “very serious retaliation” for the December 13 attack that killed two US soldiers and a US civilian.
Washington has said a lone IS gunman carried out the attack in central Syria’s Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins and once controlled by jihadist fighters.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who had been due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas”.
IS has not claimed the attack.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP that “at least five members of the Islamic State group were killed” in eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province. They included the leader of a cell responsible for drones in the area.
Jordan’s military said its air force had joined the operation “to prevent extremist organisations from exploiting these areas as launching pads to threaten the security of Syria’s neighbours and the region, particularly after terrorist organisation IS reconstituted itself and rebuilt its capacities in southern Syria”.
‘Intense bombardment’
A Syrian security source told AFP that the US strikes targeted IS cells in Syria’s vast Badia desert including in Homs, Deir Ezzor and Raqa provinces. The operation did not include ground operations.
