President Donald Trump announced that the military launched a “very serious retaliation” against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, after the group carried out an attack that killed three Americans last week.

“I hereby announce that the United States is inflicting a very serious retaliation, as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump stated on his Truth Social network.

The two service members and the translator killed by a lone gunman near the Syrian city of Palmyra on December 13 are the first Americans to die in the country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last year.

“We are hitting very hard the strongholds of ISIS in Syria, a blood-soaked place that has many problems, but has a bright future if ISIS is eradicated,” he wrote.

Attacks on more than 70 targets

The The Pentagon specified that US fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery struck more than 70 targets in central Syria as part of the major military operation. “We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to harm Americans and our partners in the region,” Admiral Brad Cooper said in a statement. Previously, the US military had announced the start of a “large-scale strike” against ISIS targets in Syria in retaliation for the ambush that killed the three Americans. Operation Hawkeye Strike: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the strike on social media and explained that the campaign has been dubbed Operation Hawkeye Strike. “This is not the beginning of a war, it is a declaration of revenge,” Hegseth explained. According to an anonymous U.S. official quoted by The New York Times, dozens of suspected ISIS sites in various parts of central Syria were attacked with fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery barrages, and the bombing was expected to last for several hours.