Nearly 25 Islamic State fighters killed or captured in Syria, U.S. military says

The U.S. militia acknowledged Tuesday (December 30, 2025) that close to 25 operatives of the Islamic Teach community were killed or captured in Syria this month following an ambush that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter.

U.S. Central Direct, which oversees the West Asia, acknowledged in a press release on X that 11 missions were implemented over the final 10 days and adopted initial strikes in opposition to IS weapons sites and infrastructure on Dec. 19, which hit 70 targets across central Syria.

Within the operations since, the U.S. militia and quite plenty of forces from the declare, along with Syria, killed on the least seven IS members, captured others and eradicated four weapons caches, U.S. Central Direct acknowledged.

“We will now not relent,” Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the express, acknowledged in the assertion. “We are steadfast in dedication to working with regional companions to root out the ISIS threat posed to U.S. and regional security.”

Targets ranged from senior IS members who were being closely monitored by militia officials to lower-level foot infantrymen, in step with a U.S. professional who spoke on the placement of anonymity to discuss aesthetic militia operations.

The professional acknowledged a rising collaboration between the US and Syria’s moderately recent government meant that U.S. forces were ready to attack IS in areas of the nation where they beforehand did now not feature. Syrian forces were the riding power in the lend a hand of a pair of of the missions in opposition to the militant community this 365 days, the professional added.

The professional when compared the rising cooperation to that between the U.S. and Iraq in stopping IS a decade ago and acknowledged the purpose, look after in Iraq, is to one way or the opposite hand over the trouble fully to the Syrians.

Essentially the latest operations adopted a Dec. 13 ambush that occurred finish to the mature city of Palmyra whereas American and Syrian security officials had gathered for a gathering over lunch. Two members of the Iowa Nationwide Guard and a civilian interpreter from Michigan were killed, whereas three assorted U.S. troops and members of Syria’s security forces were wounded.

The gunman, who became as soon as killed, had joined Syria’s interior security forces as a noxious security guard and only in the near previous had been reassigned thanks to suspicions he may perchance perchance presumably be affiliated with IS, Syrian officials acknowledged.

The initial retaliatory strike on IS targets in Syria, which integrated fighter jets from Jordan, became as soon as a necessary test for the warming ties between the U.S. and Syria since final 365 days’s ouster of autocratic chief Bashar Assad.

President Donald Trump acknowledged Syria’s recent president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, became as soon as “extraordinarily excited and worried by this attack.”