US forces kill terror leader linked to ambush on Americans in Syria

U.S. forces on Friday killed a terror chief in Syria who officers say had ties to the ISIS rebel who carried out a Dec. 13 ambush there that killed two Iowa Nationwide Guardsmen and one U.S. civilian, U.S. Central Command introduced.

Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, who U.S. officers referred to as “an skilled terrorist chief” who additionally had ties to al-Qaida, was killed in a Jan. 16 strike in northwest Syria, a launch said.

“The dying of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three People demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who assault our forces,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, mentioned in a launch. “There is no such thing as a secure place for individuals who conduct, plot, or encourage assaults on Americans and our warfighters. We’ll discover you.”

Iowa Guardsmen Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Grimes, had been killed by a lone gunman within the Dec. 13 assault in Palmyra. Each troopers had been assigned to 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Fight Workforce, which is presently deployed to the area in assist of ongoing counter-terrorism operations.

Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a U.S. citizen serving as an interpreter, was additionally killed within the assault.

The U.S. army introduced on Dec. 30 that it had carried out a collection of retaliatory operations towards the Islamic State in Syria, ensuing within the dying or detention of “practically 25 ISIS operatives,” based on U.S. Central Command.

Over a nine-day interval final month, U.S. and allied forces performed 11 operations that killed not less than seven ISIS fighters and destroyed 4 of the group’s weapons caches, based on a launch.

The operations adopted Operation Hawkeye Strike, a marketing campaign — named for the 2 troopers from the “Hawkeye State” — that concerned U.S. and Jordanian forces placing greater than 70 targets with over 100 precision-guided munitions, the army mentioned.

Officers famous on the time that the operation included A-10 assault jets, F-15 Eagle fighter jets, Apache assault helicopters and the M142 Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

Central Command mentioned in December that ISIS had impressed not less than 11 plots or assaults towards targets in the US all through 2025.

In response, CENTCOM mentioned its companion operations in Syria, which quantity greater than 80 over the previous six months, have resulted in additional than 300 insurgents being detained and over 20 killed.

The Dec. 13 ambush, in the meantime, marked the primary fight deaths throughout Trump’s second time period and the primary such assault because the authorities of former Syrian President Bashar Assad was overthrown in December 2024.