An Air Force F-15 fighter jet conducts a show of force exercise near Al-Tanf Garrison, Syria, June 17, 2020. (Christopher Estrada/U.S. Army)
NAPLES, Italy — American military forces working alongside their Syrian counterparts last week discovered and destroyed multiple Islamic State militant weapons caches in southern Syria, according to U.S. Central Command.
During multiple airstrikes and controlled detonations, U.S. military personnel from the Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve worked with Syrian forces in identifying and eliminating more than 15 ISIS weapons storage facilities across the Rif Dimashq province, CENTCOM said in a statement on Sunday.
“This successful operation ensures gains made against ISIS are lasting and the group is not able to regenerate or export terrorist attacks to the U.S. homeland and around the world,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in the statement.
During the operation, conducted Nov. 24-27, U.S. and Syrian forces destroyed more than 130 mortars and rockets, multiple assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank mines. They also found and destroyed materials for building improvised explosive devices and illicit drugs, CENTCOM said. The statement did not identify the types of drugs discovered.
“We will remain vigilant and continue to aggressively pursue ISIS remnants in Syria,” Cooper said.
The U.S. has maintained a contingent of military personnel in Syria for more than a decade, establishing the combined joint task force in 2014 as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of ISIS in the region.
Last week’s actions follow an early October strike in Syria by U.S. forces that killed a senior al-Qaida-affiliated attack planner.
Days earlier, Cooper announced that the U.S. was stepping in to help reduce the populations of large detention camps in northeast Syria, thought to be incubators for ISIS indoctrination.
The plan included establishing a new process to speed up the repatriation of nearly 29,000 displaced people at the al-Hol and al-Roj camps, as well as the 9,000 ISIS fighters held in nearby prisons, Cooper told delegates at the United Nations in New York in September.
Over the last year, the U.S. has been working to reduce its footprint in Syria by consolidating bases and eventually cutting the number of American troops stationed there to 1,000, according to a Defense Department Inspector General report to Congress in July.
Stars and Stripes reporters Matthew Adams in Washington, D.C., and Lara Korte in Germany contributed to this report.
