<figure id="attachment_3259979" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3259979" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3259979 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/56a9ea76-afp__20251220__88pp2nd__v1__midres__deadlyattackonustroopsinsyriaexposescriticalgaps_cropped_1.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3259979" class="wp-caption-text">A US Airman attaches a GBU-31 bomb to an F-15E Strike Eagle in the US Central Command area of responsibility during Operation Hawkeye Strike. (AFP pic)</figcaption></figure>
WASHINGTON: The US military said yesterday a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.
The announcement of Friday&#8217;s operation came one week after &#8220;large-scale&#8221; strikes by US and allied forces against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.
Washington has blamed an IS fighter for ambushing and killing two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter in Palmyra on Dec 13.
The target of Friday&#8217;s strike was Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, &#8220;an experienced terrorist leader who plotted attacks and was directly connected with the ISIS gunman&#8221; in last month&#8217;s lone gunman attack on the American personnel, US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the country&#8217;s military forces in the region, said on X.
CENTCOM said al-Jasim was affiliated with Al-Qaeda, without elaborating on his links with the IS group &#8211; also known as ISIS &#8211; or the Palmyra attacker.
Syria&#8217;s interior ministry has said the IS gunman was a member of the security forces who had been set to be fired for extremism.
The US personnel targeted in Palmyra were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat IS, which seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.
The armed group was ultimately defeated by local ground forces backed by international air strikes and other support, but IS still has a presence in Syria, especially in the country&#8217;s vast desert.
Operation Hawkeye Strike, which the US launched in response to the Dec 13 attack, has seen US and partner forces &#8220;hitting more than 100 ISIS infrastructure and weapons site targets,&#8221; CENTCOM said.
&#8220;More than 300 IS fighters have been captured and 20 killed in the past year in Syria,&#8221; it added.

MatchPoint Times

US says killed militant linked to Syria attack on its forces

Syria’s interior ministry has said the Islamic State gunman was a member of the security forces who had been set to be fired for extremism.

EU warns against Trump’s tariffs threat over Greenland

Nasa rolls out moon rocket to launch pad ahead of Artemis 2 mission