Illustrative: Syrian government forces deploy near the front line in Dibsi Faraj, in the northern Syrian Raqa province, on January 17, 2026. (OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

US says it killed ISIS-linked operative tied to deadly ambush on its troops in Syria

CENTCOM says Friday airstrike in northwest Syria killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, ‘an experienced terrorist leader who plotted attacks and was directly connected with the ISIS gunman’

by · The Times of Israel

WASHINGTON — The US military on Saturday said that a strike in northwest Syria a day earlier had killed a terror operative linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.

The announcement of Friday’s operation came one week after “large-scale” strikes by US and allied forces against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Washington has blamed an Islamic State fighter for ambushing and killing two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter in Palmyra on December 13.

The target of Friday’s strike was Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, “an experienced terrorist leader who plotted attacks and was directly connected with the ISIS gunman” in last month’s lone gunman attack on the American personnel, US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the country’s military forces in the region, said on X.

CENTCOM said al-Jasim was affiliated with al-Qaeda, without elaborating on his links with the Islamic State group — also known as ISIS — or the Palmyra attacker.

Syria’s interior ministry has said the Islamic State gunman was a member of the security forces who had been set to be fired for extremism.

The US personnel targeted in Palmyra were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat Islamic State, which seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.

The jihadist group was ultimately defeated by local ground forces backed by international air strikes and other support, but Islamic State still has a presence in Syria, especially in the country’s vast desert.

Operation Hawkeye Strike, which the US launched in response to the December 13 attack, has seen US and partner forces “hitting more than 100 ISIS infrastructure and weapons site targets,” CENTCOM said.

US President Donald Trump salutes as a carry team moves the transfer case with the remains of civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, who was killed in an attack in Syria, during a casualty return, December 17, 2025, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

More than 300 ISIS fighters have been captured and 20 killed in the past year in Syria, it added.

Syria’s government is led by ex-rebels who toppled former president Bashar al-Assad in 2024 after a 13-year civil war, and includes members of Syria’s former al-Qaeda branch who broke with the group and clashed with Islamic State.

Syria has been cooperating with a US-led coalition against Islamic State, reaching an agreement late last year when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.