US airstrikes hit several Islamic State camps in the Syrian desert on Monday, killing up to 35 of the militant group’s operatives, US Central Command said in a statement on Wednesday.

The strikes targeted multiple senior leaders in the early evening, the statement said, and there were no known civilian casualties. US officials did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the identities of the officials targeted.

The US has dispatched warships and air defense systems to the region, where Israel is at war with Hezbollah and Hamas, backed by Iran, and Iran and Israel have exchanged blows directly. Syria, allied with Iran and Hezbollah, has also been entangled in the conflict, adding to international unease about the already unstable region.

The Pentagon warned in July that attacks in Syria and Iraq that were claimed by the Islamic State, known as ISIS, were on track to double the number last year, indicating a resurgence of the group. ISIS affiliates have also become increasingly lethal in other parts of the world, such as Africa’s Sahel region, exploiting political instability.

ISIS claimed responsibility for 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of this year, according to a report by the military’s Central Command. In all of last year, it claimed 121 attacks in Iraq and Syria. In 2014, the group seized vast stretches of territory in Syria and Iraq, establishing a brutal regime there. Over the next five years, an array of ISIS adversaries, including the US, combined to take back the region, but thousands of the group’s fighters survived.

New York Times News Service