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STORY: U.S. Navy video showed the guided-missile cruiser U.S.S. Philippine Sea launching Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles (TLAM) against Islamic State targets on Tuesday (September 23).
The United States and its Arab allies bombed militant groups in Syria for the first time early Tuesday, killing scores of Islamic State fighters, members of a separate al Qaeda-linked group and opening a new front amid shifting Middle East alliances.
The attacks encountered no objection, and even signs of tacit approval, from President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government, which said Washington had warned Damascus in advance.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates participated in or supported the strikes against Islamic State targets, U.S. Central Command said. The countries are hostile to Assad but now fear the fighters who emerged from the rebellion they backed in Syria's 3-year-old civil war.
U.S. President Barack