Overview
- In response to the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in Palmyra, CENTCOM’s Dec. 19 Operation Hawkeye hit more than 70 ISIS targets across central Syria using over 100 precision munitions.
- On Dec. 25, the U.S. launched more than a dozen Tomahawk missiles from a Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea against ISIS-linked militants in northwest Nigeria in coordination with the Nigerian military, with ACLED noting it as the first U.S. strike in Nigeria since 1997.
- Trump and U.S. officials pointed to an unconfirmed drone strike on a Venezuelan dock used by the Tren de Aragua gang, which CNN reported as a covert U.S. operation and which the president suggested targeted narcotics infrastructure.
- In June’s Operation Midnight Hammer, B-2 bombers and bunker-buster munitions struck Iran’s nuclear sites, which the Pentagon assessed likely set back the program by up to two years, followed by an Iranian counterattack on Al Udeid with no reported casualties.
- Since September, a maritime counternarcotics campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific has carried out 33 strikes that killed over 100 alleged traffickers, contributing to what ACLED says was a more-than-doubling of U.S. strikes in 2025.