British Air Force Typhoon jets have joined forces with French warplanes in a joint strike targeting an underground arms cache in Syrian territory employed by the IS group, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
The location, located using intelligence, was assessed as storing arms and explosives, the announcement noted, and was positioned in hills just north of Palmyra in central Syria.
"Our fighter planes employed precision-guided Paveway IV munitions to hit a number of access tunnels providing entry to the facility... preliminary assessments suggest the objective was successfully hit," officials stated.
There was no sign of any civilian casualties in the strike on Saturday evening and every plane involved returned to base without incident, the MoD added.
The Typhoon FGR4s were assisted by a Voyager aerial refuelling aircraft.
IS - alternatively referred to as the so-called Islamic State - imposed extremist governance over significant areas in Syria and Iraq before its territorial defeat in 2019.
"This strike shows our UK leadership, and commitment to work closely with allied nations, to eliminate any revival of Daesh and their harmful and extremist ideologies in the Middle East," UK Defence Secretary the Defence Secretary stated.
UK warplanes have performed surveillance missions over Syrian airspace to "forestall any efforts to regroup" of the group subsequent to its military defeat at the battle of Baghuz in 2019, the ministry said.
"I must thank all the members of British forces who took part in this operation for their skill and their valour," Healey said. "Including them were a great many British personnel stationed over the festive period. This operation, to take out dangerous terrorists who pose a risk to our way of life, demonstrates how British military are always on standby, continuously, keeping Britain secure domestically and influential overseas."
In December, the United States armed forces carried out what it called a "massive strike" against IS targets in Syria, subsequent to an ambush claimed the lives of two US servicemembers and a civilian linguist in the Palmyra area.
The United Nations says IS still has an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
