US Airstrikes Target Multiple ISIS Camps in Syria

US soldiers are seen during a joint military exercise between US-led forces and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. (AFP)
US soldiers are seen during a joint military exercise between US-led forces and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. (AFP)
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US Airstrikes Target Multiple ISIS Camps in Syria

US soldiers are seen during a joint military exercise between US-led forces and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. (AFP)
US soldiers are seen during a joint military exercise between US-led forces and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. (AFP)

A series of US airstrikes targeted several camps run by ISIS in Syria in an operation the US military said will disrupt the extremists from conducting attacks in the region and beyond.

The US Central Command said the airstrikes were conducted Friday, without specifying in which parts of Syria. About 900 US troops have been deployed in eastern Syria alongside the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that were instrumental in the fight against ISIS militants.

Despite their defeat, attacks by ISIS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria have been on the rise over the past years, with scores of people killed or wounded.

ISIS seized territory at the height of its power and declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but was defeated in Iraq in 2017. In March 2019, the extremists lost the last sliver of land they once controlled in eastern Syria.

The US military said the strikes will disrupt the ability of the ISIS group to plan, organize and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.

It said battle damage assessments were underway and there were no civilian casualties.

Last month, Iraq’s military said that Iraqi forces and American troops killed a senior ISIS commander who was wanted by the United States, as well as several other prominent militants.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar sl-Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”

He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”

Iran and its armed proxies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that Tehran did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.