U.S. Air Force planes, including multiple B-52s, F-15s and A-10s carried out a series of strikes targeting a large ISIS gathering in central Syria in the early morning of Sunday, Dec. 8. U.S. Central Command announced that the bombers and fighter jets struck more than 75 targets in the Syrian desert, going after known ISIS fighters and camps.
American forces dropped roughly 140 munitions on the targets, said a senior U.S. administration official, speaking on background to reporters on Sunday. The official also called the strike “significant” given the size of the area targeted and the number of ISIS members gathered there.
The strikes were carried out the same day that the Syrian capital of Damascus fell to rebel forces. The capture marked the end of the Assad regime, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country to Moscow, according to Russian state media. The Syrian prime minister has agreed to hand over power to opposition forces.
“These strikes were not connected in any way to ongoing events in the area,” a U.S. official told Task & Purpose on condition of anonymity. “This was a planned strike in line with the U.S. mission to defeat ISIS.”
However, a source with knowledge of the operation told Task & Purpose that military planners took into consideration that the target areas were no longer defended by the Russians.
The 75 targets struck were spread out among roughly five locations in Syria’s Badiya desert, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday.
“We saw the opportunity and we took it,” Singh said.
As of Monday, the U.S. military was still conducting a battle damage assessment of how many ISIS members or leaders may have been killed in the attack, Singh said, adding that an initial assessment has concluded that “these strikes were effective, and we were able to degrade more ISIS capabilities.”
When asked if the fact that B-52s were part of the airstrikes indicated that the operation had been planned for a while, Singh said that the bombers were “available for use” and they also send a message that “we are not going to allow ISIS to resurge or reconstitute.”
She also declined to say when the strikes had been planned.
The U.S. military’s footprint in Syria currently remains the same, Singh said. The United States has approximately 900 troops inside Syria, working with partner forces including the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as part of its ongoing fight against ISIS.
“All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support ISIS in any way,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said in a statement.
The strikes on Sunday were the latest in a series of high-profile operations against ISIS gatherings and camps in the back half of 2024. Starting in August, U.S. forces have raided or bombed multiple ISIS camps, capturing leaders and killing dozens of fighters. At the end of October, American airstrikes killed as many as 35 ISIS fighters in the Syrian desert in an attack targeting known leaders. Similar major operations in western Iraq in that time period took out the group’s upper leadership inside that country.
UPDATE: 12/9/2024; This article was extensively updated after publication with additional information.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- Marine Corps commandant completes combat fitness test 11 months after open heart surgery
- How generals and admirals get promoted now and how that may change under Trump
- 101st Airborne soldier ‘ain’t come to play’ in cage match video
- Army puts up $15,000 reward to help find 31 pistols and optics stolen from Fort Moore
- ‘Andor’ shows even the Empire has the Pentagon’s acquisition model