An F-22 Raptor displays its weapons bays to the crowd July 26, 2014, during the Arctic Thunder Open House at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, Pentagon officials said Raptors were among the aircraft that flew missions over Syria providing airstrikes against Islamic State militants. (Jared Becker/U.S. Air Force)
An F-22 Raptor displays its weapons bays to the crowd July 26, 2014, during the Arctic Thunder Open House at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, Pentagon officials said Raptors were among the aircraft that flew missions over Syria providing airstrikes against Islamic State militants. (Jared Becker/U.S. Air Force)
An F-22 Raptor performs aerial maneuvers July 25, 2014, in support of the Arctic Thunder Open House at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, Pentagon officials said Raptors were among the aircraft that flew missions over Syria providing airstrikes against Islamic State militants. (Joseph Araiza/U.S. Air Force)
An F-22 Raptor performs a refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker during a training mission Aug. 7, 2014, near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The F-22 is designed to project air dominance, rapidly and at great distances. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, Pentagon officials said Raptors were among the aircraft that flew missions over Syria providing airstrikes against Islamic State militants. (Stephany Richards/U.S. Air Force)
An F-22 Raptor flies in a training mission during Red Flag 12-3 over the Nevada Test and Training Range on March 13, 2012. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, Pentagon officials said Raptors were among the aircraft that flew missions over Syria providing airstrikes against Islamic State militants. (Christopher Hubenthal/U.S. Air Force)
An F-22 Raptor participates in an exercise on March 7, 2014, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, Pentagon officials said Raptors were among the aircraft that flew missions over Syria providing airstrikes against Islamic State militants. (Christopher Hubenthal/U.S. Air Force)
Joint Chiefs of Staff Director for Operations Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville, Jr., briefs the press in the Pentagon press briefing room, Sept. 23, 2014. U.S. and coalition forces conducted air strikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq Monday evening. (Sean K. Harp/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — U.S. airstrikes in Syria may have prevented “major attacks” on the U.S. homeland, according to the Pentagon.
The U.S. military conducted two sets of attacks in Syria late Monday and early Tuesday: one against the Khorasan group — an al-Qaida offshoot — and another against the Islamic State.
Officials said Khorasan attacks against the West were “imminent” before American missile strikes rained down on northwest Syria late Monday and early Tuesday
“We believe the Khorasan group was nearing the execution phase of an attack either in Europe, or the homeland. We know that the Khorasan group has attempted to recruit Westerners to serve as operatives or to infiltrate back into their homelands,” Lt. Gen. William Mayville told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Mayville, the Joint Staff director for operations, declined to provide details about the intelligence, including which sites Khorasan was eyeing as terrorist targets.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, launched eight strikes against the group in northwest Syria, west of the city of Aleppo. Training camps, an explosive and munitions production facility, a communication building, and command and control facilities were targeted, officials said.
“The United States took actions to protect our interests and to remove their capability to act,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said.
When asked whether the airstrikes had removed the threat, Mayville said: “Give us some time to assess the targets and the effects we thought we had last night before we can answer that.”
In a simultaneous operation, the U.S. military and five Arab partner nations attacked Islamic State targets in Syria.
The two operations were conducted in three waves, Mayville said. In the first, 47 Tomahawk missiles struck Khorasan and Islamic State targets in northern and eastern Syria. The majority of the missiles were aimed at Khorasan, according to Mayville.
The Tomahawks were launched from the USS Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer and the USS Philippine Sea guided missile cruiser, which are stationed in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
The second wave featured F-22 Raptors, F-15 Strike Eagles, F-16s, B-1 bombers and drones launched from bases in the region. Those strikes in northern Syria targeted Islamic State headquarters, training camps, barracks and combat vehicles, Mayville said.
That attack marks the first time that the F-22, the Pentagon’s most advanced fighter aircraft, was used in a combat operation.
In the third and final wave, F-18s taking off the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier and regionally based F-16s hit targets in eastern Syria, including Islamic State training camps and combat vehicles. Most of those strikes took place around Deir al-Zour, Mayville said.
The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps all contributed fighter jets to the operations, according to CENTCOM.
The coalition conducted 14 strikes against Islamic State targets in the vicinity of Raqqa, Deir al-Zour, Al Hasahak, and Abu Kamal. Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took part in the bombing, and Qatar supported the effort. However, the vast majority of the munitions dropped came from the U.S., according to Mayville.
“The attack destroyed or damaged multiple ISIL targets … including ISIL fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance center, supply trucks and armed vehicles,” CENTCOM said in a press release.
ISIL is an acronym used to refer to the Islamic State.
“Initial indications are that our strikes were very successful,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Tuesday morning. “We hit everything we were aiming at.”
Mayville said that 96 percent of all the delivered munitions were precision-guided, partly to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.
American officials made a point of noting that the attacks were not coordinated with the Syrian government, which is at war with various rebel groups in Syria, including the Islamic State. The Obama administration, citing the Assad’s regime human rights abuses, is working to remove Syria’s leaders from power.
“We informed the Syrian regime directly of our intent to take action through our Ambassador to the United Nations (Ambassador Power) to the Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations. We warned Syria not to engage U.S. aircraft. We did not request the regime’s permission. We did not coordinate our actions with the Syrian government. We did not provide advance notification to the Syrians at a military level, or give any indication of our timing on specific targets,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Tuesday.
The Assad regime did not attempt to impede the U.S. military operations in Syria, and Mayville described their air defense systems, which are formidable, as “passive” during the operations.
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