The U.S. Navy released a video of fighter jets taking off from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman early Tuesday morning, their first mission to combat the Islamic State.
The missions over Iraq and Syria are the first since the aircraft carrier arrived in the Persian Gulf.
This is the first U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East since the USS Theodore Roosevelt left the region in early October. The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has helped fill the void when it arrived in the gulf this month. The carrier gap in the region has been blamed on budget cuts.
The Truman departed Norfolk, Va., in November and will be in the gulf for seven months.
