Dec 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, U.S. officials said.

A U.S.-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting Islamic State suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” and that the operation was “OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE.”

“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” he added.

Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the U.S. was inflicting “very serious retaliation.”

At a speech in North Carolina on Friday night, Trump called it a “massive” blow against the ISIS members that the U.S. blames for the Dec. 13 attack on coalition forces.

“We hit the ISIS thugs in Syria. … It was very successful,” Trump said at a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

U.S. Central Command said the strikes hit more than 70 targets across central Syria, adding that Jordanian fighter jets supported the operation.

One U.S. official said the strikes were carried out by U.S. F-15 and A-10 jets, along with Apache helicopters and HIMARS rocket systems.

Syria reiterated its steadfast commitment to fighting Islamic State and ensuring that it has “no safe havens on Syrian territory,” according to a statement by the foreign ministry.

Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the U.S. military. Three other U.S. soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

About 1,000 U.S. troops remain in Syria.

The Syrian Interior Ministry has described the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathizing with Islamic State.

Syria’s government is led by former rebels who toppled leader Bashar al-Assad last year after a 13-year civil war, and includes members of Syria’s former Al Qaeda branch who broke with the group and clashed with Islamic State.

Syria has been cooperating with a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, reaching an agreement last month when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House.

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Nine people were killed and at least 10 others wounded when gunmen opened fire inside a South African pub early Sunday, sparking a manhunt for the attackers in the country’s second mass shooting in less than a month.

The shooting happened just before 1 a.m. at KwaNoxolo tavern in Bekkersdal, a township located 28 miles west of Johannesburg. Police said about 12 unknown suspects in a white mini-bus and a silver sedan opened fire at pub patrons and continued to shoot randomly as they sped away from the scene.

“Some victims were randomly shot in the streets by unknown gunmen,” police said.

SHOOTING AT CROWDED SOUTH CAROLINA BAR LEAVES AT LEAST 4 DEAD, 20 OTHERS INJURED

Maj. Gen. Fred Kekana, Gauteng’s acting provincial commissioner, told The Associated Press that the gunmen, some of whom covered their faces with balaclavas, were armed with an AK-47 rifle and several 9mm pistols.

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Authorities have launched a manhunt for the suspects, led by Gauteng’s Serious and Violent Crime Investigations unit in coordination with the Crime Detection Tracing Unit.

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The attack follows a string of mass shootings at bars — often called shebeens or taverns in South Africa. Earlier this month, multiple gunmen opened fire at an unlicensed bar near the capital, killing at least 12 people and injuring 13 others.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lawmakers in Algeria have begun debating a draft law that would criminalise France’s colonisation of the North African country amid a period of tense ties between the two countries, according to the People’s National Assembly.

French colonial rule in Algeria lasted for more than 130 years, which was marked by torture, enforced disappearances, massacres, economic exploitation and marginalisation of the Indigenous Muslim population.

Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, but it came at a high human cost: up to 1.5 million people are believed to have been killed, thousands disappeared and millions displaced.

Here is what we know about the draft legislation.

What do we know about the bill?

The draft law, which seeks to criminalise France’s colonial rule in Algeria between 1830 and 1962, was introduced in the People’s National Assembly, Algeria’s lower house of parliament, on Saturday.

The bill will go up for a vote on Wednesday, according to reports.

Public broadcaster AL24 News reported that the draft, which contains five chapters comprising 27 articles, is based on “the principles of international law that affirm peoples’ right to legal redress” and “the achievement of historical justice”.

It aims to “establish responsibility, secure recognition and an apology for crimes of colonialism as a foundation for reconciliation with history and the protection of national memory,” the channel reported.

What has the speaker said?

Introducing the bill, Speaker Ibrahim Boughali said it was not just a legal text, but a “defining milestone in the course of modern Algeria”.

“It is a supreme act of sovereignty, a clear moral stance, and an unambiguous political message, expressing Algeria’s commitment to its inalienable rights and its loyalty to the sacrifices of its people,” Boughali said, according to the Anadolu news agency.

He noted that France’s colonisation of the country was “not limited to the plundering of wealth”.

“It also extended to policies of systematic impoverishment, starvation, and exclusion aimed at breaking the will of the Algerian people, erasing their identity, and severing their ties to their … roots,” he said.

How has France responded?

The French government has not yet responded to the debate.

But French President Emmanuel Macron has previously said he would not apologise for the colonisation of the country.

He told Le Point magazine in 2023 that he would not ask forgiveness from Algeria but intended to work towards reconciliation with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

“It’s not up to me to ask forgiveness,” he said in the interview, the AFP news agency reported.

“The worst thing would be to decide: ‘we apologise and each go our own way’,” Macron said. “Work on memory and history isn’t a settling of all accounts.”

What do we know about France’s colonial history in Algeria?

France ruled Algeria from 1830 until being driven out as a colonial power in a brutal war of independence that raged from 1954 to 1962.

Some 1.5 million Algerians were killed in the war, with French forces accused of gross human rights violations and war crimes, including systematic torture, summary executions and enforced disappearances. The French colonial forces also destroyed thousands of villages, forcibly displacing some two million Algerians.

In 2018, France acknowledged it was responsible for systematic torture during the war.

How are relations between France and Algeria?

Algeria and France maintain enduring ties through immigration in particular, but the parliamentary debate comes amid friction in the relationship.

Tensions have been high for months since Paris recognised Morocco’s autonomy plan for resolving the Western Sahara conflict in July 2024. Western Sahara has witnessed armed rebellion since it was annexed by Morocco after the colonial power, Spain, left the territory in 1975.

Algeria supports the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination in Western Sahara and backs the Polisario Front, which rejects Morocco’s autonomy proposal.

In April, the tensions escalated into a crisis after an Algerian diplomat was arrested along with two Algerian nationals in Paris. The diplomatic crisis came barely a week after Macron and Tebboune expressed their commitment to revive dialogue.