The US military announced on Tuesday that at least seven ISIS fighters were k!lled and a dozen members of the terrorist group were captured in Syria this month following an ambush that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter. US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement that 11 missions were carried out from December 20 through December 29, following initial airstrikes on IS weapons and infrastructure. Those airstrikes, conducted in coordination with Jordanian authorities, struck 70 targets across central Syria. In the operations since, the US military and other forces from the region, including Syria, four weapons caches have been destroyed, Centcom said. 'We will not relent,' Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the command, said in the statement. 'We are steadfast in commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to US and regional security.' US forces will now continue 'to hunt down terrorist operatives, eliminate ISIS networks and work with partners to prevent an ISIS resurgence,' Cooper vowed. Targets ranged from senior Islamic State (IS) members who were being closely monitored by military officials to lower-level foot soldiers, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. The official said a growing collaboration between the United States and Syria's relatively new government meant that American forces were able to attack IS in areas of the country where they previously did not operate. Syrian forces were the driving force behind some of the missions against the militant group this year, the official added. The US's latest operations came as retaliation for a December 13 ambush that occurred near the ancient city of Palmyra while American and Syrian security officials had gathered for a meeting over lunch. Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown, Iowa, were k!lled in the attack as well as a civilian interpreter from Michigan.
Both soldiers were members of the Iowa National Guard, which began deploying roughly 1,800 troops to the Middle East as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the US mission to defeat ISIS. Three other Iowa National Guard members were also injured in the December 13 attack, as were members of Syria's security forces. Authorities have since said that the gunman, who was killed, joined Syria's Internal Security forces as a base security guard. He had recently been reassigned over suspicion he might be affiliated with ISIS, though the terrorist group has not claimed responsibility for the attack, according to CNN. Following the attack, US President Donald Trump vowed retaliation, saying there would be 'a lot of damage done to the people that did it. 'We had three great patriots terminated by bad people and not the Syrian government - it was ISIS,' he said. .
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