U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Friday a deadly strike on a leader affiliated with Al-Qaeda in northeast Syria.
“The death of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three Americans demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who attack our forces,” CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said.
“There is no safe place for those who conduct, plot, or inspire attacks on American citizens and our warfighters. We will find you.”
CENTCOM described the Al-Qaeda leader, Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, as an experienced terrorist who has plotted attacks and was directly connected to the ISIS terrorist who fatally shot and injured American and Syrian personnel in the ambush last month in Palmyra, Syria.
“We honor their courage and sacrifice, and we will never forget them or their service. We are also thinking of and praying for the families of the civilian interpreter who was killed, and the three other Guardsmen who were wounded. May God place his healing hand upon them.”
Howard was the son of the police chief for the Meskwaki Nation Police Department in Iowa.
President Donald Trump had pledged “serious retaliation” against the terrorist group. Shortly after the attack, U.S. forces launched widespread, devastating strikes in Syria.
The mission, called Hawkeye Strike, involved American and partner forces hitting more than 100 ISIS infrastructure and weapons site targets. Over the past year, the United States, along with allied forces have captured more than 300 ISIS operatives and killed more than 20, CENTCOM said.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump said in a social media post. The U.S. president also told reporters at the White House on the day of the attack that Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what happened.”
Al-Sharaa assumed control of Syria after the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad and his regime in December 2024. The ISIS attack on the American servicemembers became the first of its kind since Assad’s departure.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth backed up Trump’s response to the terrorist attack on Americans last month.
This latest strike on the Al-Qaeda leader is the third such retaliatory attack in Syria since the ISIS ambush in December 2025.
