NPR News · Feb 14, 2026 · Collected from RSS
The U.S. military says the strikes were carried out in retaliation of the December ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter.
FILE - The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria is seen on Oct. 22, 2018. Lolita Baldor/AP hide caption toggle caption Lolita Baldor/AP WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Saturday reported a series of strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria in retaliation for the December ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that American aircraft had conducted 10 strikes against more than 30 IS targets between Feb. 3 and Thursday, hitting weapons storage facilities and other infrastructure. At least 50 members of IS have been killed or captured, while more than 100 IS targets have been struck since the United States began its strikes after the Dec. 13 ambush, according to Central Command. That attack killed Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, the civilian interpreter. Meanwhile, the Syrian Defense Ministry said Thursday that government forces took control of a base in the east of the country that was run for years by U.S. troops as part of the fight against IS. The Al-Tanf base played a major role after IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. The U.S. military on Friday completed the transfer of thousands of IS detainees from Syria to Iraq, where they are expected to stand trial. The prisoners were sent to Iraq at the request of Baghdad, in a move welcomed by the U.S.-led coalition that had for years fought against IS.