WASHINGTON – The U.S. military announced on Tuesday that this month, nearly 25 Islamic State operatives in Syria were either killed or captured in a series of operations. This decisive action follows a tragic ambush that resulted in the deaths of two American service members and a civilian interpreter.

According to a statement from U.S. Central Command, responsible for overseeing military operations in the Middle East, these operations unfolded over the past ten days. They were part of a broader campaign that began with targeted strikes on December 19, aimed at IS weapon sites and infrastructure, successfully hitting 70 targets across central Syria.

In the subsequent missions, U.S. forces, in collaboration with regional allies including Syrian forces, managed to neutralize at least seven IS militants, apprehend several others, and destroy four weapons caches, as confirmed by U.S. Central Command.

“We will not relent,” emphasized Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the command, in a statement. “Our commitment to collaborating with regional partners to eliminate the ISIS threat to both U.S. and regional security remains unwavering.”

Operations targeted a range of individuals, from high-level IS leaders who were under close surveillance to lower-level operatives, as revealed by a U.S. official who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of these military activities.

The official said a growing collaboration between the United States and Syria’s relatively new government meant that U.S. forces were able to attack IS in areas of the country where they previously did not operate. Syrian forces were the driving force behind some of the missions against the militant group this year, the official added.

The official compared the growing cooperation to that between the U.S. and Iraq in fighting IS a decade ago and said the goal, like in Iraq, is to ultimately hand over the effort fully to the Syrians.

The latest operations followed a Dec. 13 ambush that occurred near the ancient city of Palmyra while American and Syrian security officials had gathered for a meeting over lunch. Two members of the Iowa National Guard and a civilian interpreter from Michigan were killed, while three other U.S. troops and members of Syria’s security forces were wounded.

The gunman, who was killed, had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard and recently had been reassigned because of suspicions he might be affiliated with IS, Syrian officials said.

The initial retaliatory strike on IS targets in Syria, which included fighter jets from Jordan, was a major test for the warming ties between the U.S. and Syria since last year’s ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad.

President Donald Trump said Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”