Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s have conducted a mission with French warplanes in a combined operation targeting an underground arms cache in Syria operated by the Daesh militant organization, per a report from the UK's MoD.
The location, identified by intelligence, was assessed as housing weapons and explosive materials, the release indicated, and was situated in hills just north of Palmyra in central Syria.
"Our fighter planes utilized laser-guided Paveway IV weapons to hit a number of approach shafts providing entry to the facility... initial indications suggest the objective was successfully hit," officials stated.
There was no sign of any civilian impact in the strike late on Saturday and all the aircraft made a safe return, the MoD added.
The Typhoon fighters were backed up by a Voyager aerial refuelling aircraft.
The Islamic State group - referred to as ISIS - established extremist governance over parts of Syria and Iraq before its territorial defeat in 2019.
"This strike underscores the UK's leading role, and resolve to operate in unison with our allies, to eradicate any revival of the terrorist group and their harmful and extremist ideologies in the Middle East," the British Defence Secretary the minister said.
UK warplanes have performed patrols over Syrian airspace to "forestall any efforts to regroup" of IS subsequent to its defeat at the climactic battle in Baghuz in 2019, the authorities noted.
"I extend gratitude to the personnel of our armed forces involved in this operation for their skill and their valour," the Defence Secretary added. "Including them were thousands of British personnel deployed over Christmas and New Year. This operation, to eliminate dangerous terrorists who pose a risk to our safety, demonstrates how UK forces are prepared to act, continuously, protecting the UK at home and strong abroad."
Last December, the US military conducted what it called a "massive strike" targeting Daesh sites in Syria, after an assault claimed the lives of two US servicemembers and a local interpreter in the Palmyra area.
The U.N. says Daesh still boasts between 5,000 and 7,000 combatants in Iraq and Syria.
