Two U.S. Military troopers and a U.S. civilian who was serving as an interpreter have been killed after pictures have been fired at U.S. and Syrian forces on a mission to a historic central city in Syria on Saturday, U.S. navy officers mentioned.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in a put up on X that the assault occurred because the troopers have been conducting a “key chief engagement.” He mentioned three different service members have been injured within the incident.
“Their mission was in help of on-going counter-ISIS / counter-terrorism operations within the area,” he mentioned, including that the troopers’ names, in addition to figuring out details about their items, shall be withheld till 24 hours after the subsequent of kin notification. “This assault is presently beneath energetic investigation.”
U.S. Central Command mentioned the assault was a “results of an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman in Syria,” and that the “gunman was engaged and killed.”
The taking pictures befell close to Palmyra, in response to Syria’s state-run SANA information company, which mentioned two members of Syria’s safety power have been wounded. Extra data on their situation was not instantly obtainable.
No group has claimed duty for the assault, and the id of the gunman has not been launched.
U.S. Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth mentioned in a X put up on Saturday that the “savage who perpetrated this assault was killed by companion forces.”
“Let it’s identified, in the event you goal People — wherever on the planet — you’ll spend the remainder of your transient, anxious life realizing the USA will hunt you, discover you, and ruthlessly kill you,” he wrote.
Tom Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and particular envoy for Syria, condemned the “cowardly terrorist ambush” on X.
“We mourn the lack of three courageous U.S. service members and civilian personnel and need a speedy restoration to the Syrian troops wounded within the assault,” Barrack wrote. “We stay dedicated to defeating terrorism with our Syrian companions.”
The U.S. has tons of of troops deployed in jap Syria as a part of a coalition preventing the Islamic State group.
Final month, Syria joined the worldwide coalition preventing in opposition to ISIS as Damascus improved its relations with Western nations following final 12 months’s fall of President Bashar al-Assad when insurgents captured his seat of energy in Damascus.
The U.S. had no diplomatic relations with Syria beneath Assad, however ties have warmed because the fall of the five-decade Assad household rule. The interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, made a historic go to to Washington final month, the place he held talks with President Trump.
ISIS was defeated in Syria in 2019 however the group’s sleeper cells nonetheless perform lethal assaults within the nation. The United Nations says the group nonetheless has between 5,000 and seven,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
U.S. troops, which have maintained a presence in several components of Syria — together with Al-Tanf garrison within the central province of Homs — to coach different forces as a part of a broad marketing campaign in opposition to IS, have been focused up to now. One of many deadliest assaults occurred in 2019 within the northern city of Manbij when a blast killed two U.S. service members and two American civilians, in addition to others from Syria, whereas conducting a patrol.
