DAMASCUS, Syria — The barrage of airstrikes launched by the United States across Syria late Friday underscored the challenges facing the country’s president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, as he struggles to assert control over the nation and navigate a nascent relationship with President Donald Trump.

U.S. fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery struck more than 70 suspected Islamic State positions across central Syria, targeting the group’s infrastructure and weapons sites, according to the U.S. military’s Central Command. Jordanian warplanes assisted in the operation.

Since Syria joined a global coalition last month to defeat the Islamic State group, the group has stepped up its attacks in the country, according to U.S. and Syrian officials, as well as security experts. The Syrian government did not comment directly on the U.S. strikes but said Saturday that it was intensifying its own military operations against the Islamic State group, which is also known as ISIS.

“The Syrian Arab Republic invites the United States and member states of the international coalition to support these efforts in a manner that contributes to the protection of civilians and the restoration of security and stability in the region,” its statement said. Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said al-Sharaa’s government wanted to project authority over Syria’s affairs, while still engaging with its international partners.

Al-Sharaa faces the difficult task of uniting disparate groups and religious minorities under his leadership. Those include factions that hold extremist views and that were once affiliated with al-Qaida, as he was.

Some of al-Sharaa’s more hard-line supporters could bristle at strikes by a Western country on their homeland, Hawach added. “The government is trying very hard to walk a thin line,” he said.

A senior U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, did not rule out the possibility of more U.S. airstrikes.

For now, the official said, Syrian security forces, aided by U.S. intelligence, will “pick up the pace” to conduct raids against Islamic State militants and choke off the flow of weapons to the group.

The strikes Friday in Syria came a week after Trump said he would retaliate against the Islamic State group for killing two U.S. soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter in the ancient city of Palmyra. Three U.S. military personnel and two members of Syrian security forces were also wounded in the attack, according to U.S. officials and Syrian state media.

No group has claimed responsibility for that attack, though initial assessments suggest that it was probably carried out by the Islamic State group, according to the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence officials.

Syrian officials said the gunman was a member of the country’s security forces who was slated for dismissal because of his extremist beliefs. The killings exposed persistent weaknesses within Syria’s security structure. Some of Trump’s supporters have called for a withdrawal of U.S. troops.