READ MORE: Hegseth announces operation to \u2018eliminate ISIS fighters\u2019 in Syria after Americans killed<\/a><\/p>\nThe Jordanian military said in a statement that its air force \u201cparticipated in precise airstrikes \u2026 targeting several ISIS positions in southern Syria,\u201d using a different abbreviation for the Islamic State group. Jordan is one of 90 countries making up the global coalition against IS, which Syria recently joined.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military did not say how many had been killed in Friday\u2019s strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported that at least five people were killed, including the leader and members of an IS cell.<\/p>\n
The Jordanian statement said the operation aimed \u201cto prevent extremist groups from exploiting these areas as launching pads to threaten the security of Syria\u2019s neighbors and the wider region, especially after ISIS regrouped and rebuilt its capabilities in southern Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region, said in a statement that its forces \u201cstruck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria with fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery,\u201d with the Jordanian air force supporting with fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n
It said that since the Dec. 13 attack in Syria, \u201cU.S. and partner forces conducted 10 operations in Syria and Iraq resulting in the deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives,\u201d adding that the U.S. and partners have conducted more than 80 counterterrorism operation in Syria in the past six months.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump had pledged \u201cvery serious retaliation\u201d after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS. Those killed were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the militant group. On Friday Trump reiterated his backing for Syrian\u00a0interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who Trump said was \u201cfully in support\u201d of the U.S. strikes against IS.<\/p>\n
IS has not taken responsibility for the attack on the U.S. service members, but the group has claimed two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described al-Sharaa\u2019s government and army as \u201capostates.\u201d While al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with al-Qaida, he has had a long-running enmity with IS.<\/p>\n
As well as killing three U.S. citizens, the shooting near Palmyra also wounded three other U.S. troops as well as members of Syria\u2019s security forces, and the gunman was killed.<\/p>\n
The assailant had joined Syria\u2019s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned while he was under investigation on suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Syrian officials have said.<\/p>\n
The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.<\/p>\n
\n A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy.\n <\/p>\n
\n Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue.\n <\/p>\n
\n Donate now<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) \u2014 Jordan confirmed Saturday that its air force took part in strikes launched by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-195264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}