The United Kingdom and France carried out a joint airstrike on Saturday night against an underground facility near Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, believed to have been used by ISIL to store weapons, the UK Ministry of Defence said, adding that the area “was devoid of any civilian habitation.”
“Royal Air Force aircraft have completed successful strikes against Daesh in a joint operation with France,” the ministry said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
In late December, the United States military reported killing or capturing around 25 ISIL fighters over nine days of operations in Syria. The Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, said the operations followed the killing of two US troopers and a civilian interpreter by an ISIL attacker on December 13, and a subsequent wave of US airstrikes six days later.
Meanwhile, Turkey intensified its crackdown on ISIL within its borders. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities arrested 125 ISIL suspects across 25 provinces, including Ankara. The operation, the third in less than a week during the holiday season, followed a deadly shootout in the northwestern city of Yalova between Turkish police and suspected ISIL members.
The coordinated strikes and arrests reflect growing concerns over ISIL’s attempts to regroup in Syria and the wider region.
ISIS, also known as ISIL or Daesh, is a militant extremist group that emerged from “al-Qaeda in Iraq” and rose to international prominence around 2014. The group follows a radical form of “Sunni Islam” and seeks to establish a self-declared “Islamic caliphate” governed by its strict interpretation of Sharia law. At its peak, ISIS controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria, including cities like Mosul and Raqqa, and became notorious for brutal tactics such as mass executions, kidnappings, and attacks on civilians.