_A version of this article originally appeared on VICE Australia_**_._**

The Royal Australian Air Force carried out its first airstrikes inside Syria on Monday, destroying an armored personnel carrier hidden in an Islamic State compound in the country's northeast.

A briefing published by the United States Central Command on Tuesday was the first acknowledgement that Australia had conducted airstrikes in Syria. The reference was a small but nevertheless dramatic addition to a passage that has largely appeared unchanged for months. Australian Defense Minister Kevin Andrews confirmed the attack Wednesday morning.

"Two days ago, the Air Task Group completed its first strike against a Daesh strike in eastern Syria, destroying an armored personnel carrier," he said, referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "Two of our Hornets identified the personnel carrier, which was hidden in a Daesh compound. That information was reported back to the combined operations centre by our Wedgetail command and control aircraft, and upon receiving authorization to proceed, one of the Hornets employed a precision guided weapon to destroy the target."

The "Hornets" mentioned by Andrews were among Australia's fleet of 24 Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets, which are the country's go-to strike fighters, usually deployed with a range of air to surface missiles.

Reports suggest that Australia's military might have been behind as many as three strikes, with two reported in the same area near Al Hasakah where the armored personnel carrier was hit, but the precise number of Australia bombings has not been confirmed.

When a reporter asked Andrews why the airstrike hadn't been publicized, the defense minister noted that Australia doesn't have a policy of announcing daily events.

"On this occasion, I was planning to make a ministerial statement, which is a six-monthly update of our operations in the Middle East and that's due today," he said.

It's unknown whether anyone was in the vehicle, but Andrews later acknowledged to Australian radio personality Neil Mitchell that "if they were, they were certainly killed."

The news follows Australia's pledges to welcome an additional 12,000 refugees from Syria and extend its Iraqi airstrikes across the border into Syria.

Australia currently has 330 troops training in Iraq, but it has not announced a plan to deploy troops to Syria.