By Maher Al Mounes and Daniel Stublen, AFP
US troops patrol Syria's Hasakah province on 14 June 2023. File photo. Photo: AFP
Two American troops and a civilian interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an alleged member of the Islamic State (IS) group opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said.
"We mourn the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria," US President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform, vowing "very serious retaliation."
US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the deaths on X after Syria's state media earlier reported an attack in the city of Palmyra had wounded American and Syrian troops.
"An ambush by a lone ISIS gunman" resulted in the three Americans' deaths as well as injuries to three additional troops, said CENTCOM, which oversees the US military in the Middle East.
"The gunman was engaged and killed," it said.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the attack occurred on Saturday as the soldiers "were conducting a key leader engagement" in support of counter-terrorism operations, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted "a joint US-Syrian government patrol."
"The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X.
Parnell said the identities of the deceased troops would be withheld until after their families were notified.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country's ties with the US.
Syrian state news agency (SANA), quoting a security source, earlier reported that several US troops and two Syrian service members had been wounded in the attack.
Trump called it "an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them."
Three other injured US troops were "doing well," Trump said.
US President Donald Trump has vowed "very serious retaliation" in response to the attack. File photo. Photo: AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
The soldiers were taking part in a "joint field tour" in Palmyra, which was once under the control of the IS group, SANA reported.
Many of the city's renowned ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were destroyed when the IS group controlled the area a decade ago.
'Infiltration'
A Syrian military official who requested anonymity said that the shots were fired "during a meeting between Syrian and American officers" at a Syrian base in Palmyra.
A witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said he heard the shots coming from inside the base.
However, a Pentagon official speaking on the condition of anonymity told AFP that the attack "took place in an area where the Syrian President does not have control."
In an interview on state television, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said there had been "prior warnings from the internal security command to allied forces in the desert region" of a potential IS "infiltration."
"The international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible IS infiltration into consideration," he said.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, the meeting came as part of an "American strategy to strengthen its presence and foothold in the Syrian desert".
SANA reported that helicopters had evacuated the wounded to the Al-Tanf base in southern Syria, where American troops are deployed as part of the Washington-led global coalition against the IS group.
Last month, during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's historic visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the coalition.
IS seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during Syria's civil war, before being territorially defeated in the country five years later.
Its fighters, however, still maintain a presence, particularly in Syria's vast desert.
US forces are deployed in Syria's Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at Al-Tanf near the border with Jordan.
- AFP
