U.S. forces sent a very clear message Friday night to anyone still pretending ISIS is yesterday’s problem. In a coordinated operation involving American and coalition forces, the U.S. military unleashed a heavy wave of air and artillery strikes against ISIS targets scattered across the Syrian desert. The operation came roughly one week after two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter were murdered by an ISIS gunman who had slipped into Syria’s so called security forces, which remain riddled with extremist elements.
According to United States Central Command, Operation Hawkeye Strike kicked off around 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery units were used, with additional air support from Jordan’s military. This was not a symbolic show of force. More than 100 precision guided munitions were fired at over 70 confirmed ISIS targets, including weapons caches and operational infrastructure spread across central Syria.
The Pentagon said the goal was simple, degrade ISIS’s ability to plan and carry out attacks against U.S. troops and partner forces. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper put it bluntly, saying the operation was critical to preventing ISIS from inspiring terrorist plots against the U.S. homeland. In other words, hit them there so they do not reach here.
The strikes were a direct response to the December 13 ambush near Palmyra, where an ISIS gunman opened fire on a joint convoy. Two American soldiers were killed, Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa. Both served in the Iowa National Guard. Also killed was Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a 54 year old civilian interpreter from Macomb Township, Michigan, originally from Bakhdida, Iraq. Three others were wounded in the attack.
In the days following that ambush, U.S. and partner forces carried out ten additional operations in Syria and Iraq, killing or capturing 23 terrorists. Over the past six months, more than 80 such missions have been conducted, a reminder that the war on terror did not magically end because politicians got bored talking about it.
President Trump addressed the attack with characteristic clarity. “We had three great patriots terminated by bad people, and not the Syrian government, it was ISIS,” he said. That distinction matters, especially given the complicated mess Syria has become.
Syria is currently governed by Ahmed al Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda leader whose group later rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al Sham. His forces have a long record of beheadings, massacres, and religious persecution. Despite efforts to clean up his image and normalize relations with the West, atrocities against Alawites, Druze, Christians, and other minorities continue to be reported.
Still, the U.S. is attempting to work with Damascus to avoid full scale chaos. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that helping the Syrian government succeed is preferable to watching the country collapse into total anarchy.
Friday night’s strikes were not about nation building or diplomatic optimism. They were about accountability. When Americans are killed, there are consequences. ISIS learned that again the hard way.
Leave a Comment