WASHINGTON — The US military launched a rare wave of airstrikes against dozens of sites believed to be associated with remnants of the Islamic State group across rural central and eastern Syria on Friday, in retaliation for an ambush in Palmyra last week that killed two US soldiers and an American interpreter.

The strikes aimed to "eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a post on X announcing the operation.

President Donald Trump confirmed the ongoing retaliatory strikes in a post on social media, saying Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “fully in support.”

Videos and accounts of explosions were reported as stretching across Deir ez-Zor province to Palmyra in southern Syria and other areas of the country's central desert, and as far northeast as Raqqa. More than 70 targets had been struck by about 2:15 a.m. local time, a US official briefed on the operation told Al-Monitor. 

US Air Force F-15s, A-10 tank busters and US Army Apache attack helicopters, as well as US HIMARS systems on the ground, were joined by Jordanian Royal Air Force........

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