Syria strikes add to list of 21st century US military forays

This satellite image released by the US Department of Defense shows a damage assessment image of Shayrat air base in Syria. (DigitalGlobe/US Department of Defense via AP)

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration opened a new military front Thursday when it ordered dozens of cruise missiles against a Syrian air base, adding to a growing list of recent US military forays. A look at where the United States has fought in the 21st century:
AFGHANISTAN
After Al-Qaeda attacked the US on Sept. 11, 2001, the US led an invasion of Afghanistan that ousted the Taliban. Though the US and NATO formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, the war — now in its 16th year — drags on.
Some 8,400 American troops are deployed in Afghanistan, where they train the country’s military and perform counterterrorism operations.
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IRAQ
Under President George W. Bush, the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein. Bush’s successor, President Barack Obama, pulled US troops out of Iraq in 2011 after failing to reach an agreement with Baghdad to leave a residual US force behind.
But the US sent troops back three years later after the Daesh group, a successor to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, seized Iraqi territory and sought to declare an Islamic caliphate.
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DRONE WARS
Under Obama, the US dramatically increased the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, to launch counterterrorism strikes without the need for a large US military presence on the ground. The CIA and Defense Department have launched strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, some of them covert.
Intense criticism from civil liberties advocates led Obama to create legal parameters for drone use that he hoped future presidents would respect. At least 117 civilians were killed from 2009 to 2016 by drone strikes outside of traditional warzones, the US intelligence community has said. Other estimates place the toll higher.
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LIBYA
The US and European allies launched an air campaign in Libya in 2011, aiming to prevent atrocities by strongman Muammar Qaddafi against Arab Spring-inspired opponents. The bombing campaign toppled Qaddafi, but Libya slid into chaos and infighting. The Daesh group later gained a foothold.
The US has continued to carry out airstrikes in Libya that Washington says has diminished the number of IS extremists operating there.
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ISLAMIC STATE GROUP IN IRAQ AND SYRIA
After IS captured a wide swath of Iraq and Syria in 2014, Obama announced the US could target the group “wherever they are.”
The US started sending small numbers of military advisers to help Iraq’s weakened military fight IS. The number has crept up to around 7,500 US troops. IS has lost much of its former territory.
In Syria, the US has conducted airstrikes against IS since 2014. More recently, the US has dispatched growing numbers of special operations forces to assist Kurdish and Arab forces fighting IS. Roughly 500 US fighters are in Syria, plus additional, “temporary” forces that rotate through.
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SYRIA
Even while fighting IS in Syria, the US has avoided wading into Syria’s civil war by directly confronting Syrian President Bashar Assad — until now. On Thursday night, US warships in the Mediterranean Sea launched some 60 Tomahawk missiles at an air base in response to a chemical weapons attack blamed on Assad’s forces.
The strikes mark the first direct US attack on Syria’s government, which has waged a six-year civil war against opposition groups. It also puts the US into a de facto proxy battle with Russia’s military, which is on the ground in Syria and has propped up Assad.