US President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed retaliation after two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in an alleged Islamic State (IS) ambush targeting a joint US-Syrian patrol in central Syria.
The attack occurred in Palmyra, a desert city once controlled by IS, when a lone gunman opened fire, according to the Pentagon and US Central Command. The assailant was later engaged and killed.
“We mourn the loss of three great American patriots in Syria,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, promising “very serious retaliation.” He described the incident as an IS attack in a highly volatile area not fully under government control. Three other US troops wounded in the attack were reported to be in stable condition.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the troops were conducting a “key leader engagement” as part of counterterrorism operations. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack confirmed the attack targeted a joint patrol involving Syrian government forces.
The incident is the first reported fatal attack on US personnel since Islamist-led forces toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December last year, leading to renewed engagement between Damascus and Washington.
Trump said Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who visited the White House last month, was “extremely angry and disturbed” by the attack. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani condemned the incident and expressed condolences to the victims’ families and the American people.
A Syrian military official said the shooting occurred during a meeting between Syrian and US officers at a military base in Palmyra, though a Pentagon official said the attack took place in an area beyond full Syrian government control.
Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said authorities had earlier warned allied forces of a possible IS infiltration in the desert region, but those warnings were not acted upon.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the meeting was part of a US effort to strengthen its presence in the Syrian desert. State news agency SANA reported that helicopters evacuated the wounded to the Al-Tanf base near the Jordanian border, where US forces are stationed as part of the international coalition against IS.
IS, which seized large areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014, was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 but continues to operate in remote desert regions. US forces remain deployed in northeastern Syria and at Al-Tanf in support of counterterrorism operations.
Source: AFP