U.S. forces and regional partners have killed or captured nearly 25 Islamic State operatives in Syria this month, stepping up pressure on the terror group after a deadly ambush that left two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter dead.

In an article on

“US and partner forces killed or captured nearly 25 ISIS operatives in the days following a large-scale strike in Syria on December 19,” CENTCOM said, adding that at least seven ISIS operatives were killed, others were arrested and four weapons caches were destroyed.

These missions follow Operation Hawkeye Strike, a coordinated campaign involving U.S. and Jordanian forces that hit more than 70 ISIS targets using more than 100 precision-guided munitions. US Central Command said dozens of fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery systems were used to destroy IS infrastructure and weapons sites in central Syria.

“We will not give in,” said Admiral Brad Cooper, who led the command. “We are firmly committed to working with our regional partners to eliminate the threat that ISIS poses to the security of the United States and the region. »

The intensifying campaign follows a Dec. 13 ambush near the ancient city of Palmyra, where U.S. and Syrian security officials had gathered for a meeting. Two members of the Iowa National Guard and a civilian interpreter from Michigan were killed, while three other U.S. troops and members of Syrian security forces were injured, according to the Associated Press.

Syrian officials said the attacker, who was killed in the incident, had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base guard and was later reassigned due to suspected links to Islamic State.

According to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the latest missions have targeted a wide range of ISIS members, from high-ranking figures placed under long-term surveillance to lower-level fighters. The official said growing cooperation between U.S. forces and Syria’s relatively new government has enabled operations in previously inaccessible areas.

The command said the intensified operations were part of a broader effort to prevent a resurgence of ISIS. In 2025 alone, the group inspired at least 11 plots or attacks against U.S. targets. Over the past year, U.S. and partner forces in Syria have arrested more than 300 suspected militants and killed more than 20 others.

“Continuing to hunt down terrorists, eliminate ISIS networks and work with partners to prevent a resurgence of ISIS makes America, the region and the world safer,” Cooper said.

The initial retaliatory strikes also represented a key test of warming relations between Washington and Damascus following the ouster of longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last year. US President Donald Trump said Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was “extremely angry and disturbed” by the ambush in which US personnel were killed.

– Ends

With contributions from the Associated Press

President Donald Trump’s administration announced Tuesday that it is freezing Minnesota’s child care funds after a series of fraudulent schemes in recent years.

Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz responded in an article on

“He is politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O’Neil called out a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday claiming to have discovered that daycares run by Somali residents in Minneapolis committed as much as $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he asked Walz to submit an audit of those centers including attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

“We turned off the money spigot and we discovered the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement comes a day after U.S. Homeland Security officials traveled to Minneapolis to conduct a fraud investigation by visiting unidentified businesses and interviewing workers.

There have been years of fraud investigations that began with the nonprofit Feeding Our Future’s $300 million scheme, for which 57 Minnesota defendants were convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the nation’s largest COVID-19 scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food to children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that have supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.

O’Neill, who is acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in a social media post Tuesday that payments across the United States through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will now require “justification and a receipt or photographic proof” before the money is sent. They also launched a hotline and email address to report fraud, he said.

The Administration for Children and Families provides $185 million in child care funds to Minnesota each year, according to Deputy Secretary Alex Adams.

“This money is expected to help 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants,” he said in a video posted on X. “Any dollars stolen by the scammers are stolen from these children.”

Adams said he spoke with the director of Minnesota’s Office of Child Care on Monday and she was unable to say “with certainty whether these allegations of fraud are isolated or whether the fraud is statewide.”

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, said fraud would not be tolerated and his administration “will continue to work with our federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are arrested.”

Walz said an audit scheduled for late January should give a better idea of ​​the extent of the fraud. He said his administration was taking aggressive steps to prevent further fraud. He has long defended his administration’s response.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a few.