Office of Bashar al Assad, via Reuters
The Syrian foreign ministry said the U.S. forewarned the country that it would launch airstrikes targeting ISIS. “The American side informed Syria’s permanent envoy to the U.N. that strikes will be launched against the Daesh [an Arabic name for ISIS] terrorist organization in Raqqa,” according to a brief statement published on Syrian state media. Raqqa is ISIS’s self-declared capital of Syria. The U.S.-led strikes, which began last night around 8:30 p.m. ET, hit the city of Raqqa as well as a number of other villages and cities, including ones in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour and the village of Kfar Derian between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib. Syria has stated it would consider any uncoordinated attacks against ISIS an act of aggression and a violation of its national sovereignty. U.S. officials have also previously raised doubts over the legal justifications for the anti-ISIS airstrikes and over whether they will be sufficient to stop ISIS in Syria.