Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter aircraft have joined forces with French warplanes in a joint strike on an underground arms cache in Syria employed by the IS group, as stated by the British defence ministry.
The site, pinpointed through intelligence, was believed to be housing weapons and explosive materials, the release indicated, and was located in hills just above Palmyra in Syria's central region.
"Our aircraft employed precision-guided Paveway IV munitions to target a number of access tunnels leading to the depot... preliminary assessments suggest the strike was effective," the MoD said.
There was no indication of any harm to civilians in the operation late on Saturday and every plane involved returned to base without incident, the ministry further stated.
The Typhoon fighters were backed up by a Voyager refuelling tanker.
Daesh - alternatively referred to as ISIS - established militant control over parts of Iraq and Syria until 2019.
"This operation demonstrates the UK's leading role, and commitment to work closely with allied nations, to eliminate any re-emergence of the terrorist group and their dangerous and violent ideologies in the Middle East," UK Defence Secretary John Healey remarked.
RAF aircraft have conducted surveillance missions over Syrian airspace to "prevent any attempted comeback" of IS after its routing at the Baghuz confrontation in 2019, the MoD reported.
"I want to thank all the members of the UK armed forces involved in this mission for their expertise and their courage," Healey added. "They were part of numerous UK service members deployed over Christmas and New Year. This operation, to take out militants who pose a risk to our safety, shows how UK forces are always on standby, all year round, keeping Britain secure domestically and influential overseas."
Last December, the United States armed forces carried out what it described as a "major assault" targeting IS targets in Syria, following an assault claimed the lives of two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter in the Palmyra area.
The U.N. reports Islamic State still has roughly 5-7 thousand fighters in Iraq and Syria.
