The campaign is operated separately from the overall U.S. military offensive against the Islamic State.

WASHINGTON — The CIA and U.S. special operations forces have launched a secret campaign to hunt terrorism suspects in Syria as part of a targeted killing program that is run separately from the broader U.S. military offensive against the Islamic State, U.S. officials said.

The use of drones, like this Predator aircraft, are part of a clandestine operation in Syria, as the CIA and U.S. special forces collaborate on strikes against the Islamic State. The Associated Press

The CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command are both flying armed drones over Syria in a collaboration responsible for several recent strikes against senior Islamic State operatives, the officials said. Among those killed was a British militant believed to be an architect of the terror group’s effort to use social media to incite attacks in the United States, the officials said.

The clandestine program represents a significant escalation of the CIA’s involvement in the war in Syria, enlisting the agency’s powerful Counterterrorism Center against a militant group that many officials believe has eclipsed al-Qaida as a terror threat.

But while the CTC has been given an expanded role in identifying and locating senior Islamic State figures, U.S. officials said that the strikes are being carried out exclusively by JSOC. The officials said the program is aimed at terrorism suspects deemed “high value targets.”

“These people are being identified and targeted through a separate effort,” said a senior U.S. official familiar with the operation, referring to the British militant, Junaid Hussain, and others killed in a recent weeks.

The decision to enlist the CIA and JSOC reflects rising anxiety among U.S. counterterrorism officials about the danger posed by the Islamic State, as well as frustration with the failure so far of conventional strikes to degrade the group’s strength.

This new adversary poses different challenges. Unlike al-Qaeda, the Islamic State has extensive territory, a seemingly endless stream of recruits, and a deep roster of senior operatives, many of whom served in the military of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. move complicates one of Obama’s remaining counterterrorism policy goals of gradually reversing the CIA’s evolution from spy service to paramilitary force.

Obama last year signaled his intent to have the agency cede control of drone strikes to the Department of Defense and return the spy service’s focus to more traditional categories of espionage.

The White House had sought in recent months to revive its plan to shift control of drone operations to the Pentagon, but encountered renewed opposition on Capitol Hill.

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