Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter aircraft have conducted a mission with French warplanes in a coordinated attack targeting an underground arms cache in Syria used by the Daesh militant organization, according to the UK's MoD.
The location, pinpointed through surveillance, was thought to be containing munitions and bombs, the announcement noted, and was situated in mountainous terrain just to the north of the historic site of Palmyra in central Syria.
"Our fighter planes used precision-guided Paveway IV munitions to strike a number of access tunnels providing entry to the depot... initial indications suggest the objective was successfully hit," the MoD said.
There was no evidence of any civilian casualties in the attack late on Saturday and every plane involved returned safely, the defence officials confirmed.
The British jets were assisted by a Voyager aerial refuelling aircraft.
Daesh - referred to as ISIS - established extremist governance over significant areas in Iraq and Syria until 2019.
"This action shows British leadership, and commitment to operate in unison with allied nations, to stamp out any re-emergence of Daesh and their dangerous and violent ideologies in the Middle East," UK Defence Secretary John Healey said.
UK warplanes have performed overwatch operations over Syrian airspace to "deter any attempted resurgence" of Islamic State subsequent to its routing at the climactic battle in Baghuz in the year 2019, the MoD reported.
"I extend gratitude to the personnel of our armed forces involved in this strike for their skill and their valour," Healey commented. "They were part of numerous UK service members on duty over the holidays. This action, to remove dangerous terrorists who pose a risk to our security, demonstrates how British military are prepared to act, continuously, protecting the UK at home and strong abroad."
Last December, the US military carried out what it termed a "major assault" against IS targets in Syria, subsequent to an ambush resulted in the deaths of two US troops and a civilian linguist in Palmyra.
The UN says IS still has between 5,000 and 7,000 combatants in Syria and Iraq.
