The strikes were launched in response to a December 13 attack that killed two US National Guard members and an American civilian interpreter in Palmyra, central Syria. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the airstrikes a "declaration of vengeance," but the gunman who killed the three Americans was a member of Syria's security forces, and ISIS never took responsibility for the attack.

The SOHR also said that a raid carried out by the US-led coalition on Thursday, a day before the airstrikes, killed one member of an ISIS cell, a woman believed to be the wife of a suspect, and a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a stray bullet during a firefight.

The escalation of US military operations in Syria signals the Trump administration is doubling down on its Syria policy, which includes supporting the new Syrian government, which is led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander who was once an ally of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS.