An ambush on a joint US-Syrian patrol in the Syrian city of Palmyra killed two American soldiers and a US civilian interpreter on Saturday, according to the Pentagon and Syria's state news agency. Three American soldiers and two Syrian security personnel were wounded by an attacker US Central Command said belonged to the Islamic State group, the Washington Post reports. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X, without providing additional details, that the attacker was killed by partner forces. President Trump said the US will retaliate.
The names of the victims were not released, pending notification of relatives. They were the first American casualties in Syria since dictator Bashar al-Assad fell last year, per the New York Times. The Pentagon posted that the US personnel had been conducting a "key leader engagement" on Saturday during a counterterrorism mission. Syrian media reported that the casualties were evacuated by helicopter to the US base at Al-Tanf, about 75 miles south of Palmyra. The ancient city, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its Roman-era ruins, was once held by the Islamic State. It's in an area where the group has continued its attacks despite its territorial defeat.
At the White House, Trump told reporters that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was "devastated by what happened," stressing that Syrian personnel were fighting alongside US troops, per the AP. "This was an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria," Trump said. He posted, "There will be very serious retaliation." Syria's interior ministry said allied troops in the area had been alerted to an increased risk, per Deutsche Welle.
"The international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible IS infiltration into consideration," a spokesperson said on state television. The ministry denied reports that the attacker was a member of Syrian security forces. US forces have operated in Syria since 2015 and remained after the collapse of the group's self-declared caliphate in 2019, with the stated goal of targeting remaining Islamic State cells. "We have now had multiple collaborations with the Syrian government to counter very specific ISIS threats," Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, said last week, per the Post.
This file has been updated with President Trump's response.
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