It will continue for weeks: What weapons were used in Hawk Eye against ISIS in Syria?
“It is not the beginning of a war, but an announcement of retaliation,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, describing the strikes that targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” in Syria.
The operation launched by the United States on Friday, dubbed “Hawk Eye Strike,” led, according to Hegseth, to “hunting down and killing our enemies. Many of them. And we will continue.”
So what do we know about the targets and the weapons used in the attack?
According to a U.S. official, the aim of the operation was to strike areas where ISIS is attempting to reorganize, to eradicate those forces, and to destroy their positions on a large scale.
The official said that the U.S. military used F-15 and A-10 aircraft, along with Apache helicopters and advanced, highly mobile U.S. rocket launchers (HIMARS).
According to two U.S. officials who spoke to the American network NBC, the strikes are expected to continue for several weeks, or even up to a month.
Officials announced on Friday that the U.S. military had carried out strikes on ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria. One U.S. official said that more than 70 targets were hit in central Syria.
According to a U.S. official, the objective of the operation was to strike sites where ISIS is attempting to regroup, eliminate its forces, and destroy its positions on a wide scale.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region, said in a social media post that U.S. aircraft, helicopters, and artillery used more than 100 precision-guided munitions against targets in Syria.
Earlier, the Secretary of Defense said that “U.S. forces have launched an operation in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack that occurred on December 13 in Palmyra, Syria, against U.S. forces.”
Fulfilling a promise?
Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, said on Friday regarding the strikes: “President Trump told the world that the United States would respond to the killing of our heroes by ISIS in Syria, and he is keeping that promise.”
Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supports the strikes, adding that the United States is carrying out an “extremely severe response.”
Three other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the December 13 attack in Palmyra, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said last Saturday. He added that the soldiers “were in contact with a key commander as part of support for ongoing counter-ISIS operations.”
The U.S. military reported that the two soldiers killed in Syria last Saturday were Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, from Des Moines, and Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, 29, from Marshalltown, Iowa. Both were members of the Iowa National Guard. An American civilian, Iyad Mansour Sakkat, from Macomb, Michigan, who worked as a translator, was also killed.
The shooting near the historic city of Palmyra injured three members of U.S. forces and Syrian security forces before the attacker was killed. Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine Al-Baba said the attacker had joined the Syrian internal security forces as a base guard two months earlier and had recently been transferred to another department due to suspicions of his affiliation with ISIS.
