Washington/ Damascus, Dec. 20 -- The Pentagon carried out strikes on multiple Islamic State-linked targets across Syria on Friday in retaliation for a recent attack that killed two US soldiers and one U.S. civilian in the Middle East country, according to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"Earlier today, U.S. forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on U.S. forces that occurred on December 13th in Palmyra, Syria," Hegseth said in a post on X.
"This is not the beginning of a war -- it is a declaration of vengeance," said Hegseth.
"Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue," he said. The strikes wer...