The United States and Arab allies have launched strikes from the air and sea against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, opening a new front in the battle against the brutal jihadist group.
The US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday that Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had joined Washington in carrying out the strikes.
"Using a mix of fighter, bombers, remotely piloted aircraft and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles", the coalition conducted 14 strikes against IS targets in Syria, it said.
The strikes "destroyed or damaged" multiple targets in the jihadists' northern stronghold and near the border with Iraq including IS fighter positions, training compounds, command centres and armed vehicles.
The US-led air assault in Syria marked a turning point in the war against the IS group, which has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate".
Washington had been reluctant to intervene in Syria's raging civil war, but was jolted into action as the jihadists captured more territory and committed widespread atrocities, including the on-camera beheadings of three Western hostages.
Syria's opposition had pleaded for the strikes, especially after a jihadist assault on a strategic Kurdish town in northern Syria in the past week sent tens of thousands of terrified residents fleeing across the border to Turkey.
IS militants have warned the US-led campaign would be met with a harsh response and an IS-linked Algerian group on Monday threatened to kill a French hostage within 24 hours if Paris did not end its participation in air strikes in Iraq.
Washington said the strikes from the sea were carried put from US warships operating in the Red Sea and the Gulf and that 47 Tomahawks were fired.
Fighter jets, bombers and remote-controlled aircraft were used for the strikes, which the five Arab nations "participated in or supported".
"All aircraft safely exited the strike areas," the US said, adding that four air strikes were also conducted on Monday in neighbouring Iraq, bringing the number of US raids in that country to 194.
It said eight strikes were also carried out on a group of "seasoned al-Qaeda" veterans west of Syria's second city, Aleppo, to disrupt an "imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said its sources had reported numerous strikes in the northern Raqa province and near the Iraqi border. At least 20 militants were killed in two positions alone, it said.
Activists against President Bashar al-Assad's regime on the ground in Syria said the strikes had been targeted precisely and did not seem to have caused major civilian casualties.
The new strikes came less than two weeks after US President Barack Obama warned he had approved an expansion of the campaign against the IS group to include action in Syria.
Damascus said it had been informed by Washington of the air raids before the action on its soil.
Syria's opposition National Coalition welcomed the new strikes, but urged sustained pressure on Assad's government.
The raids came hours after Algerian group Jund al-Khilifa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) posted a video showing the white-haired and bespectacled French hostage, Herve Pierre Gourdel, squatting on the ground flanked by two hooded men clutching assault rifles.
In the footage, confirmed by Paris as authentic, the group gave France 24 hours to halt its air strikes in Iraq.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told French radio there would be "no discussion, no negotiation" with the Algerian group and stressed Paris would continue its air strikes.
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