The United States military has launched large-scale strikes against dozens of self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on American military personnel.
A US-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting IS group suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria's security forces.
US President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate after a suspected IS group attack killed US personnel last weekend in Syria.
Trump's defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the strikes targeted IS group "fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites".
"This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance," Hegseth said.
"Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue."
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP that "at least five members" of the IS group were killed in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor province, including the leader of a cell responsible for drones in the area.
Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the US was inflicting "very serious retaliation".
At a speech in North Carolina on Friday night, Trump called it a "massive" blow against the IS group members that the US blames for the December 13 attack on coalition forces.
"We hit the ISIS thugs in Syria. … It was very successful," Trump said at a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, using another common name for the IS group.
US Central Command said the strikes hit more than 70 targets across central Syria on Friday, adding that Jordanian fighter jets supported the operation.
Syria reiterated its steadfast commitment to fighting Islamic State and ensuring that it has "no safe havens on Syrian territory", according to a statement by the foreign ministry.
Two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the US military.
Three other US soldiers were also wounded in the attack. About 1,000 US troops remain in Syria.
The Syrian interior ministry has described the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathising with the IS group.
Syria's government is led by former rebels who toppled leader Bashar al-Assad last year after a 13-year civil war, and includes members of Syria's former al-Qaeda branch who broke with the group and clashed with IS group fighters.
Syria has been cooperating with a US-led coalition against the IS group, reaching an agreement in November when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House.
Syria's foreign ministry, while not directly commenting on the strikes, said on X that the country was committed to fighting IS and "ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory, and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat".
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