President Donald Trump vowed retaliation Saturday after two U.S. Military troopers and a civilian U.S. interpreter have been killed in an assault in Syria, an incident the Pentagon mentioned occurred throughout a counterterrorism engagement.
“This was an ISIS assault in opposition to the U.S., and Syria, in a really harmful a part of Syria, that’s not totally managed by them,” Trump mentioned on Reality Social. “There will likely be very severe retaliation.”
Three different U.S. personnel have been wounded within the assault in Palmyra, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson mentioned on X. The assault occurred because the troopers “have been conducting a key chief engagement” in “assist of ongoing counter-ISIS operations,” he mentioned.
“This assault is at the moment beneath energetic investigation,” Parnell mentioned.
U.S. Central Command mentioned the assault was an ambush by “a lone ISIS gunman” and that the gunman was engaged and killed.
A Pentagon official advised NBC Information the assault occurred in an space exterior the management of Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned in a separate X put up that the one who carried out the assault was killed by U.S. accomplice forces. He didn’t present further particulars in regards to the perpetrator of the forces concerned.
“The savage who perpetrated this assault was killed by accomplice forces,” Hegseth wrote, including that those that goal People “will spend the remainder of your transient, anxious life realizing the US will hunt you, discover you, and ruthlessly kill you.”
A spokesperson for Syria’s Inside Ministry, Nour al-Din al-Baba, mentioned on state tv that inside safety officers had issued prior warnings to accomplice forces working within the Badia area about the potential for an Islamic State assault. He mentioned the U.S.-led coalition didn’t take these warnings severely.
The U.Okay.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported that the attacker is a member of Syrian safety forces. Al-Baba mentioned the person had no management function inside Syria’s inside safety forces and was not serving as an escort to management on the time of the assault.
The Division of Protection has not launched further particulars past statements on social media.
President Donald Trump addressed the assault forward of Saturday’s Military-Navy soccer sport in Baltimore, calling it an ambush and mourning the deaths. When requested by a reporter whether or not the U.S. would retaliate, Trump mentioned, “Yeah, we are going to.”
The U.S. navy has about 2,000 troops in Syria, primarily stationed within the northeast, the place they work with native safety to forestall the resurgence of the Islamic State. The U.S. and different nations have re-engaged with Damascus beneath al-Sharaa, since rebels ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.