The US military carried out a strike against the Islamic State group in Syria yesterday, in response to a deadly attack on American forces in the country. The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria. The Command said that the Operation Hawkeye Strike involved more than 100 precision munitions targeting known IS infrastructure and weapons sites.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least five members of the Islamic State group were killed in eastern Syria’s Deir ez Zor province. US President Donald Trump said that the US has struck very strongly against IS strongholds, following the 13 December IS ambush in the city of Palmyra in which two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter were killed. He said the Syrian government was fully in support.