Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter aircraft have joined forces with French aircraft in a joint strike targeting an underground arms cache in Syrian territory employed by the Islamic State group (IS), as stated by the UK's MoD.
The site, located using intelligence, was thought to be containing munitions and bombs, the statement said, and was located in mountains just to the north of the historic site of Palmyra in central Syria.
"Our fighter planes employed precision-guided Paveway IV munitions to target a number of access tunnels leading to the site... initial indications indicate the objective was successfully hit," the MoD said.
There was no evidence of any civilian casualties in the attack conducted Saturday night and all the aircraft made a safe return, the ministry further stated.
The Typhoon FGR4s were supported by a Voyager refuelling tanker.
IS - also known as Daesh - established extremist governance over large swathes of Iraq and Syria until 2019.
"This action shows British leadership, and resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, to eliminate any revival of IS and their harmful and extremist ideologies in the region," Britain's Defence Chief the minister remarked.
UK warplanes have conducted surveillance missions over Syrian airspace to "deter any attempted comeback" of the group after its defeat at the battle of Baghuz in 2019, the MoD reported.
"I must thank all the members of the UK armed forces participating in this strike for their professionalism and their valour," the Defence Secretary said. "They were among numerous British troops stationed over the holidays. This operation, to take out terrorist threats who endanger our way of life, shows how our armed forces are ready to step up, throughout the year, keeping Britain secure domestically and powerful internationally."
In December, the US military carried out what it described as a "massive strike" against Islamic State objectives in the country, following an attack resulted in the deaths of two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter in the Palmyra area.
The U.N. says IS still has roughly 5-7 thousand militants in Iraq and Syria.
