The large-scale strikes, conducted by the U.S. alongside partner forces, occurred around 12:30 p.m. ET, according to U.S. Central Command. The strikes hit multiple Islamic State targets across Syria.
WTOP National Security Correspondent JJ Green shared more details about the strike with WTOP’s Ralph Fox:
January 11, 2026 | WTOP National Security Correspondent JJ Green speaks with WTOP’s Ralph Fox about U.S. strikes in Syria
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has launched another round of retaliatory strikes against the Islamic State in Syria following last month’s ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in the country.
The large-scale strikes, conducted by the U.S. alongside partner forces, occurred around 12:30 p.m. ET, according to U.S. Central Command. The strikes hit multiple Islamic State targets across Syria.
Saturday’s strikes are part of a broader operation that is part of President Donald Trump’s response to the deadly ISIS attack that killed Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, the civilian interpreter, in Palmyra last month.
“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Saturday.
A day earlier, Syrian officials said their security forces had arrested the military leader of IS’s operations in the Levant.
The U.S. military said Saturday’s strikes were carried out alongside partner forces without specifying which forces had taken part.
The Trump administration is calling the response to the Palmyra attacks Operation Hawkeye Strike. Both Torres-Tovar and Howard were members of the Iowa National Guard.
It launched Dec. 19 with another large-scale strike that hit 70 targets across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has for years been the U.S.’s main partner in the fight against IS in Syria, but since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, Washington has increasingly been coordinating with the central government in Damascus.
Syria recently joined the global coalition against IS.
- WTOP’s Ralph Fox speaks with National Security Correspondent JJ Green:
What’s happening at this hour?
- JJ Green:
These strikes are a part of what’s called Operation Hawkeye strike. It was first announced back in December on the 19th, and this was after President Trump ordered these strikes in direct response to an ISIS attack on U.S. forces in Palmyra, which killed two U.S. forces. But what we’re having today is more of that, the administration and the military say. According to U.S. Central Command, along with their partners, this is trying to address a broader concern, and that is that ISIS is not just doing small attacks. They are planning and engaging in bigger attacks, more targets, more deadly attacks, and more people most likely would be involved in those attacks. So what they’re trying to do is to pull this out at the root before it gets any worse or any further, and that’s a big part of what the Operation Hawkeye strike was all about.
- Ralph Fox:
Do we have any idea of why this is happening now?
- JJ Green:
My understanding, based on sources I’ve spoken to, is that they’ve gotten some chatter and some information that ISIS is continuing to plan and continuing to plot to do these strikes on U.S. forces. The U.S. has about 1,000 forces in Syria, but they’re throughout that region too. Don’t forget, U.S. forces are in Iraq as well. And you know, there are other situations that are going on involving other groups, other organizations, that want to target U.S. forces. So a part of what’s happening here is they’re targeting these locations throughout Syria to get a grip, at least, on these organizations before they get to a point where it’s too late. And so, in order to do this, they have to target a lot of different locations, different types of buildings, facilities, groups, encampments, etc. But that’s a part of this whole story.
- Ralph Fox:
Today, there have been a number of questions about congressional approval. With what happened in Venezuela, and now this apparently seems to raise the same question.
- JJ Green:
Well, I’m not sure about that, because this is an ongoing operation. I don’t know if you remember Operation Iraqi Freedom and some of those other operations that took place after that, especially when Syria was partly the capital of ISIS’s caliphate under Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. There was an international coalition built, and still operating, which their objective was to go after ISIS and to prevent it from rising to a point where it could again do something like that. So I think this may be done under that authority, as opposed to attacking a sovereign country.
But the other part of this, too, is U.S. diplomats have been meeting with Syrian officials during this time during a strike, so I’m certain they’re doing it with their permission, their cooperation, and with their help. So I don’t think this is going to fall into that category that one might think about when you look at Venezuela and situations like that. I think this is something different.
- Ralph Fox:
I assume we’ve not heard of any U.S. casualties as a result of these operations?
- JJ Green:
I haven’t heard of any casualties. I’m sure there are of ISIS, or at least folks in Syria, that are non-American, that were probably a part of or closely associated with the target sets. But we haven’t heard of any casualty figures. It’s a bit early for that, but we’ll probably get some of that as the day moves on. But no, we haven’t heard of any U.S. casualties.
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