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President Donald Trump promised “Severe Retribution” against ISIS after two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed and three other soldiers were wounded. in an attack in syria On Saturday.
Hours after the Pentagon announced that three Americans were “ambushed by a lone ISIS gunman”, the US president vowed to retaliate against the unit believed to have attacked US and Syrian forces.
“This was an attack by ISIS against the US and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria that is not completely controlled [ISIS,] Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is extremely angry and troubled by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation.”
The attack on US forces came as US troops were conducting a “key leader engagement” as part of a counterterrorism operation near the ancient city of Palmyra, said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman.
Parnell said the motive for the attack was not clear at this time, but the Pentagon was currently investigating.
US Central Command said the gunman was killed.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said“Let it be known, if you target Americans anywhere in the world – you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing that the United States will hunt you down, find you, and brutally kill you.”
Parnell said the Pentagon is withholding the names of the deceased soldiers as well as any identifying information about their units until notification of next of kin.
Trump told reporters Saturday afternoon that the three injured soldiers were “doing well.”
The attack comes just days after Admiral Charles Bradford “Brad” Cooper, head of US Central Command. expressed optimism Almost for the future of Syria One year after the fall of the al-Assad regime.
In a video message, Cooper said US troops were in Syria to fight ISIS while also supporting the unification of the Syrian Democratic Forces with the Syrian government. The Trump administration has embraced the new Syrian leader.
By December 2024, roughly 2,000 US troops were in Syria, But the Trump administration has been reducing the number of troops for the last 10 months. In April, they said they would reduce the number to 1,400.
Despite withdrawing some troops from Syria, the US continues to fight ISIS – although US-backed troops initially defeated the last holdout of the caliphate in 2019. But ISIS still maintains a presence in the region and carries out deadly attacks from time to time.
Syria’s interior ministry spokesman, Noureddine al-Baba, told Syrian state media SANA that the attack occurred at the entrance of a fortified Internal Security Forces headquarters after the end of a joint patrol.
Independent It is understood that the suspected killer opened fire with small arms.
The identity of the attacker or his affiliation has not been confirmed. Baba gave contradictory statements indicating that the attackers may have been part of a force affiliated with Syrian security forces with extremist ideology.
But he also said he “had no leadership position and was not affiliated with the Internal Security Forces Command.”
Baba defended the ISF, saying that there are more than 5,000 personnel attached to their forces in the Syrian desert and “these personnel are evaluated weekly”.
He claimed that in one of these assessments a few days earlier, the perpetrator of the attack had been flagged as possibly holding extremist views. A verdict in his case was expected on Sunday, but the attack happened a day before on Saturday, which is an administrative holiday.
Baba also said that the ISF had issued prior warnings to partner forces in the international coalition “regarding initial intelligence indicating a possible breach or attack by ISIS. However, these warnings were ignored.”