US carries out strikes on ISIS camps in Syria

US military Central Command says strikes degraded extremist group's ability to carry out attacks

Soldiers from the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition take part in military exercises in north-eastern Syria. AFP

The US military said on Saturday that it carried out air strikes on several ISIS camps in Syria that would disrupt the extremist group’s ability to stage attacks.

US forces "conducted a series of air strikes against multiple known ISIS camps in Syria in the early morning of October 11", the US Central Command said in a statement on X.

"The strikes will disrupt the ability of ISIS to plan, organise, and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond."

Damage assessments are under way and "do not indicate civilian casualties," Centcom said, without specifying the location of the targets.

The US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against ISIS. The group declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Iraq retook all its territory in 2017, while in Syria the extremists lost the last sliver of land they held in 2019.

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

Anti-ISIS coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria as violence related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza since last year has drawn in militants across the Middle East, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

US forces have carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against militant factions in both countries.

Last month, US forces conducted two separate strikes in Syria, killing 37 "terrorist operatives" including members of ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliate Hurras Al Din.

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 injured.