Despite its defeat in Syria in 2019, IS' sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq, where the extremists once declared their caliphate.

British and French aircraft conducted a joint strike on Saturday night on an underground facility in Syria used by ISIS to store weapons and explosives.

The strikes on Saturday evening hit the site, thought to be used by Isis militants to store weapons and explosives, in a mountainous area north of the Syrian city of Palmyra, according to a statement from the UK government. French jets joined the strikes by RAF Typhoon FGR4s.

France confirmed a joint strike with the UK on an ISIS-linked underground weapons site in central Syria, using fighters and precision munitions.

This operation aims to prevent any resurgence of ISIS in a region where its fighters remain active despite its military defeat in 2019.

The British Ministry of Defence said it cooperated with France to strike an underground facility in Syria that had likely been used by the Islamic State group to store weapons.