U.S. Central Command announced Saturday that Operation Hawkeye Strike carried out ten strikes against over thirty ISIS targets in Syria between February 3 and 12. Precision munitions were delivered by fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned aircraft as part of the sustained campaign to eliminate what remains of the ISIS network in Syria.

The numbers over the past two months tell the story of a military that isn't waiting around for the next attack.

CENTCOM reported that more than 50 ISIS terrorists have been killed or captured, over 100 infrastructure targets have been struck, and hundreds of precision munitions have been expended. This isn't a symbolic gesture. It's a grinding, methodical campaign to ensure a terrorist network that once held territory the size of Britain never reconstitutes.

The December ambush that triggered the hammer

On December 13, 2025, ISIS fighters ambushed American forces in Palmyra, Syria. Fox News reported that two U.S. service members and one American interpreter were killed.

That attack was a reminder — the kind that costs blood — that ISIS may have lost its so-called caliphate in 2019, but its remnants haven't stopped fighting. They still maintain weapons caches, logistics nodes, and communication infrastructure. They still plot. They still kill.

The American response has been Operation Hawkeye Strike: sustained, relentless pressure on the network's bones. Between January 27 and February 2, CENTCOM carried out five strikes targeting an ISIS communication site, logistics node, and weapons storage facilities. Then came the latest round — ten more strikes against over 30 targets. The tempo speaks for itself.

A clear message from CENTCOM leadership

Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM's commander, framed the mission in terms that leave no room for ambiguity:

"Striking these targets demonstrates our continued focus and resolve for preventing an ISIS resurgence in Syria."

Cooper also emphasized the coalition dimension of the effort:

"Operating in coordination with coalition and partner forces to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS makes America, the region and the world safer."

CENTCOM described the broader campaign's purpose plainly — to "sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network." No hand-wringing about proportionality. No diplomatic hedging. Relentless military pressure. That's the posture.

Syria's shifting landscape

The strikes come during a period of significant movement on the diplomatic front as well. President Trump told reporters on January 27 that he'd had a productive exchange with Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa:

"All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well. So, we are very happy about it."

Meanwhile, CENTCOM announced Thursday that it had completed its withdrawal of American forces from al-Tanf Garrison in Syria — a move that signals a broader recalibration of how the U.S. projects force in the region. The withdrawal from a fixed position and the simultaneous escalation of kinetic operations against ISIS aren't contradictory. They're complementary. You don't need to sit in a garrison to deliver precision munitions from the air. You need intelligence, aircraft, and the will to use them.

That's the shift worth watching. Fewer boots in static positions. More strikes against verified targets. A leaner, more lethal footprint that denies ISIS safe space without committing American forces to an indefinite ground presence.

What the numbers demand

Consider the scale: Operation Inherent Resolve launched in 2014 to confront ISIS at its peak. The territorial caliphate fell in 2019. Seven years later, the U.S. is still hunting remnants — still finding weapons caches, still dismantling logistics networks, still killing fighters who refuse to accept defeat.

This is the part of counterterrorism that doesn't make for dramatic headlines. It's not the fall of Mosul or the raid on a compound. It's the slow, expensive, unglamorous work of ensuring that a decentralized terror network never achieves the critical mass to threaten cities again. It requires sustained political will, not just military capability.

Three Americans died in Palmyra in December. Two service members and an interpreter who understood the risks and went anyway. The strikes that followed aren't vengeance — they're strategy. But they also carry weight beyond the tactical. Every precision munition that destroys an ISIS weapons cache is a statement that American lives taken will not go unanswered.

Within two months, U.S. forces neutralized more than 50 ISIS fighters and destroyed more than 100 infrastructure targets.

Two months. That's what happens when you stop managing a problem and start eliminating it.