U.S. Strikes on Syria Underscore Scale of Challenge for Its President

The Syrian government did not comment directly on the extensive American strikes targeting the Islamic State on Friday, but said it was intensifying its own efforts to fight the group.

The barrage of airstrikes launched by the United States across Syria late on Friday underscored the challenges facing the country’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, as he struggles to assert control over the nation and navigate a nascent relationship with President Trump.

American fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery attacked more than 70 suspected Islamic State positions across central Syria, targeting the group’s infrastructure and weapons sites, according to the U.S. military’s Central Command. Jordanian warplanes also assisted in the operation.

Since Syria joined a global coalition to defeat the Islamic State last month, the group has ramped up its attacks in the country, according to American and Syrian officials, as well as security experts.

The Syrian government did not comment directly on the U.S. strikes but said in a statement on Saturday that it was intensifying its own military operations against the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS.

“The Syrian Arab Republic invites the United States and member states of the international coalition to support these efforts in a manner that contributes to the protection of civilians and the restoration of security and stability in the region,” the statement said.

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said that Mr. al-Sharaa’s government wanted to project authority over Syria’s affairs, while balancing that with a need to engage with its international partners.

Mr. al-Sharaa faces the difficult task of uniting disparate groups and religious minorities under his leadership. Those include factions that hold extremist views and that, like him, were once affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Some of Mr. al-Sharaa’s more hard-line supporters could bristle at a Western country’s carrying out strikes on their homeland, Mr. Hawach added. “The government is trying very hard to walk a thin line,” he said.

A senior U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, did not rule out the possibility of more U.S. airstrikes.

For now, the official said, Syrian security forces, aided by American intelligence, will “pick up the pace” to conduct raids against Islamic State militants and choke off the flow of weapons to the group.

The strikes on Friday in Syria came a week after Mr. Trump said he would retaliate against ISIS for killing two American soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter in the ancient city of Palmyra. Three American military personnel and two members of Syrian security forces were also wounded in the attack, according to American officials and Syrian state media.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for that attack, though initial assessments suggest that it was most likely carried out by the Islamic State, according to the Pentagon and American intelligence officials.

Syrian officials said the gunman was a member of the country’s security forces who was slated for dismissal because of his extremist beliefs. The killings exposed persistent weaknesses within Syria’s security structure. Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters have called for a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Mr. al-Sharaa and his rebel forces swept to power just over a year ago after toppling Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s longtime dictator. The country has since grappled with a shattered economy, rising sectarian violence, political instability and the growing threat of terrorism.

Mr. Trump and Mr. al-Sharaa have maintained a warm relationship, even meeting at the White House in November. This week, Washington repealed a final batch of crippling sanctions on Syria.

After the deadly attack on Americans last week, Mr. Trump reiterated his support for the Syrian leader.

“This had nothing to do with him,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday. “This is a part of Syria that they really don’t have much control over. And it was a surprise. He feels very badly about it. He’s working on it. He’s a strong man.”

The United States carried out large-scale attacks against ISIS when Mr. al-Assad still ruled Syria. Though the group’s power has significantly diminished in recent years, largely because of military defeats and loss of territory, it is still present in the remote deserts of central Syria and launches sporadic attacks from there.

This month, ISIS claimed to have killed four Syrian government officers in the Idlib governorate in the country’s northwest. It also claimed two attacks in the Deir al-Zour governorate in the east, one of which involved targeting an army vehicle with an explosive device.

This week, the Syrian authorities said that they had arrested several people belonging to an ISIS cell in Idlib and a member of the group in the capital, Damascus, who was found with explosive materials and suicide drones.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said on Friday that it had carried out over 80 operations in the past six months aimed at neutralizing terrorist operatives in Syria, including the Islamic State.

On Saturday, military analysts were still assessing how the strikes had damaged the Islamic State’s capabilities.

“The number of strikes shows ISIS presence remains stronger than previously acknowledged,” said Andrew Tabler, who served as the White House’s Syria director during Mr. Trump’s first administration and is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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