Roughly two dozen ISIS operatives have been killed or captured in Syria by US and partner forces since US airstrikes earlier this month, which were carried out in response to the killing of two American service members.

“Nearly 25” operatives were killed or captured between December 20 and 29, a release by US Central Command said Tuesday; seven ISIS members have been killed, while the rest were captured during 11 missions. Four ISIS weapons caches were also destroyed, the release said.

The missions follow large-scale strikes by the US on December 19 in Syria that hit roughly 70 targets. The retaliatory strikes came after two US service members and one civilian interpreter were killed in an attack on December 13 that the US has said was carried out by ISIS. A US official previously said US and partner forces had killed or detained around 23 people after the December 13 attack, separate from the roughly two dozen cited in the Tuesday release.

“We will not relent,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, said in Tuesday’s release. “We are steadfast in commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to U.S. and regional security.”

The two US service members and civilian interpreter were killed in Palmyra, Syria, due to injuries sustained “while engaged with hostile forces,” the Army previously said. The Defense Department said the attack was carried out by a lone ISIS gunman.

The soldiers were identified as 25-year-old Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar of Des Moines, Iowa, and 29-year-old Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown, Iowa. Both were members of the Iowa National Guard, which began deploying roughly 1,800 troops to the Middle East earlier this year as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the US mission to defeat ISIS. Three other Iowa National Guard members were injured in the attack.

The retaliatory strikes on December 19 “destroyed ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites across central Syria,” Tuesday’s release said.

Other partner nations joined the US in the strikes, including Jordan, which said it did so to prevent extremist organizations from threatening the security of neighboring countries, particularly after ISIS “reconstituted itself and rebuilt its capabilities in southern Syria.”

Hundreds of US forces are deployed to Syria as part of the US’ long-standing mission to combat ISIS. ISIS had not claimed responsibility for the attack that killed two Americans, and while the Trump administration vowed retaliation against the terror group, CNN previously reported that Syria’s Ministry of Interior Affairs said the attacker was a part of the country’s Internal Security service.

President Donald Trump, as well as Syrian leaders, were quick to distance the gunman from the country’s fledgling government, which has received strong American support in recent months.

The day after the attack, Trump vowed retaliation, saying there would be a “lot of damage done to the people that did it.”

“We had three great patriots terminated by bad people, and not the Syrian government, it was ISIS,” Trump said at the time. In the wake of the December 19 retaliatory strikes, Trump said on social media that Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, “is working very hard to bring Greatness back to Syria.” (CNN)

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