President Donald Trump promised “serious retaliation” against ISIS after two U.S. Army soldiers and one civilian interpreter were killed and three other soldiers were injured in an attack in Syria on Saturday.
Hours after the Pentagon announced the three Americans had been ambushed by a “lone ISIS gunman,” the U.S. president vowed to seek retribution against the entity believed to have conducted the attack on U.S. and Syrian forces.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by [ISIS,] Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation.”
The attack on American forces occurred as U.S. soldiers were conducting a “key leader engagement,” as part of a counter-terrorism operation near the ancient city of Palmyra, Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said.
The motive for the attack remains unclear at this time, but the Pentagon is currently investigating, Parnell added.
U.S. 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 the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”
The Pentagon is withholding the names of the deceased soldiers as well as any identifying information about their units until next of kin notification, Parnell said.
Trump told reporters Saturday afternoon that the three soldiers injured “are doing well.”
The ambush comes just days after Admiral Charles Bradford “Brad” Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, expressed optimism for the future of Syria approximately one year after the fall of the al-Assad regime.
In a video message, Cooper said U.S. troops were in Syria to combat ISIS as well as support the integration of Syrian Democratic Forces with the Syrian government. The Trump administration has embraced the new Syrian leader.
As of December 2024, roughly 2,000 U.S. troops were in Syria, but the Trump administration has been reducing the number of troops over the last 10 months. In April, they said they would draw the number down to 1,400.
Despite pulling some troops from Syria, the U.S. continues to fight back against ISIS – though U.S.-backed troops initially defeated the last holdouts of the caliphate in 2019. But ISIS still maintains a presence in the region and periodically carries out deadly attacks.
Syria’s interior ministry spokesperson, Noureddine al-Baba, told Syria’s state media Sana that the attack took place at the entrance to a fortified Internal Security Forces headquarters after the end of a joint patrol.
The Independent understands that the suspected killer used small arms fire.
The identity of the attacker or his affiliation hasn’t been confirmed. Baba appeared to give contradictory statements by indicating the attacker may have been part of a force affiliated with Syrian security forces who had extremist ideology.
But he also said that he “held no leadership position and was not affiliated with the Internal Security Forces Command.”
Baba defended the ISF, saying that there are more than 5000 personnel affiliated with their forces in the Syrian desert and that “these personnel undergo weekly evaluations”.
He claimed that in one of these evaluations a few days ago, the perpetrator of the attack had been flagged as possibly having extremist views. A decision regarding his case was expected to be made on Sunday, but the attack happened the day before Saturday which is an administrative holiday.
Baba also said that ISF had issued prior warnings to partner forces in the international coalition “regarding preliminary intelligence indicating a possible breach or attack by ISIS. However, these warnings were disregarded.”
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