Syria’s opposition had pleaded for the strikes, especially after a jihadist assault on a strategic Kurdish town in northern Syria over the last week sent tens of thousands of terrified residents fleeing across the border to Turkey.
IS militants have warned the U.S.-led campaign would be met with a harsh response and an IS-linked Algerian group on Monday threatened to kill a French hostage within 24 hours if Paris did not end its participation in air strikes in Iraq.
Washington said the strikes from the sea were carried put from U.S. warships operating in the Red Sea and the Gulf and that 47 Tomahawks were fired.
Fighter jets, bombers and remotely controlled aircraft were used for the air strikes, which the five Arab nations “participated in or supported.”
“All aircraft safely exited the strike areas,” it said, adding that four air strikes were also conducted Monday in neighboring Iraq, bringing the total number of U.S. raids in that country to 194.
It said eight strikes were also carried out on a group of “seasoned al-Qaida” veterans west of Syria’s second city Aleppo to disrupt an “imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests.”
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Al-Momani told AFP the country’s warplanes had taken part in strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq as “part of our efforts to defeat terrorism in its strongholds.”
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