BEIRUT (AP) – A series of U.S. airstrikes targeted camps run by the Islamic State group in Syria in an operation aimed at deterring militants from carrying out attacks in Syria and abroad. did.
U.S. Central Command said Friday that the airstrikes were carried out, but did not say in which areas of Syria they were carried out. About 900 U.S. troops are deployed in eastern Syria, along with the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have helped fight IS fighters.
Despite the defeat, attacks by IS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria have increased in recent years, resulting in large numbers of casualties.
At the height of its power, the Islamic State seized territory and declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but was defeated in Iraq in 2017. In March 2019, the militants lost the last tract of land they once controlled. Eastern Syria.
The U.S. military said the strikes disrupt the Islamic State’s ability to plan, organize and carry out attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians in the region and beyond.
A damage assessment from the battle is ongoing and there were no civilian casualties, it said.
Last month, the Iraqi military announced that Iraqi and U.S. forces had killed an IS leader and several other prominent militants wanted by the United States.
At its peak, the group controlled half of Britain and enforced an extreme version of Islam, including attacks on religious minorities and harsh punishments for Muslims deemed apostates.
