Speaking at an event in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Trump said the US military “hit the ISIS thugs in Syria” and that he had “ordered a massive strike on the terrorists that killed our three great patriots last week”.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the operation as “a declaration of vengeance” and said “lots” of fighters had been killed.
Meanwhile, the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had deployed “fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery” to conduct the operation.
CENTCOM said forces launched “more than 100 precision munitions targeting known Daesh infrastructure and weapons sites”.
The command did not provide details on specific locations or casualty figures.
Separately, CENTCOM said “the Jordanian Armed Forces also supported with fighter aircraft”.
The strikes come as Syria's de facto leader, a former al-Qaeda commander, Ahmed al-Sharaa seeks to reshape both his own image and that of Syria, according to Al Jazeera’s Oghanna.
US authorities had considered al-Sharaa a “terrorist” as recently as last month.
At that time, the US Department of the Treasury removed him from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list ahead of a meeting with Trump.
Al-Sharaa “wants the world to know Syria is no longer safe haven for Daesh … and he’s also trying to transform his own image in the eyes of the world,” Oghanna said.
In a related development, Oghanna said the latest strikes increase pressure on multiple actors.
“This latest episode, however, puts more pressure on the new Syrian government, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the US and Jordan ‘to work more closely together in eradicating the Daesh threat’,” he said.
Meanwhile, Syria earlier this month marked one year since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government.
The country continues to face serious security and economic challenges as it seeks to rebuild after 14 years of civil war.