WASHINGTON: The US military said Saturday that its forces had struck more than 30 Daesh targets in Syria this month, maintaining pressure on the extremists after a deadly attack on US troops last year.
The strikes also came as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) in recent weeks transferred thousands of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq, after they had been held in prisons run for years by Kurdish-led forces.
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.
The airstrikes, carried out between February 3 and February 12, hit Daesh “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 blamed a Daesh fighter for ambushing and killing two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter in Palmyra on December 13.
Syria’s interior ministry has said the Daesh gunman was a member of the security forces who had been set to be fired for extremism.
The US launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to the attack.
“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.
On Friday, CENTCOM said it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 detained Daesh suspects, from 61 countries, from Syria to Iraq.
The operation began last month as Damascus’s capture of territory surrounding the prisons from Kurdish-led forces sparked questions over the fate of the Daesh prisoners, prompting Washington to step in.
Alongside the US-led anti-Daesh coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces spearheaded the battle that led to the extremist group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
Washington has however drawn close to Syria’s new authorities, recently saying the purpose of its alliance with the Kurdish forces was largely over.
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.
