President Donald Trump mentioned Saturday that there will probably be “very serious retaliation” after two US troopers and one civilian interpreter have been killed in an ambush in Syria on Saturday.
Three others have been wounded in the assault, which was carried out by a single ISIS gunman, US Central Command and the Department of Defense mentioned in statements Saturday.
“We will retaliate,” Trump instructed reporters on the White House. He mentioned the nation is mourning “the loss of the three great American patriots” and praying for the three wounded, who “seem to be doing pretty well.”
The president famous the US’ cooperation with Syrian forces. “Syria, by the way, was fighting along with us,” Trump mentioned, including that Syria’s new president is “devastated by what happened.”
The troopers’ “mission was in support of on-going counter-ISIS / counter-terrorism operations in the region,” wrote Sean Parnell, chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, in a statement on X. He added that the names of these killed have been being withheld till subsequent of kin are notified.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth mentioned the attacker was killed by associate forces.
“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,” Hegseth wrote on X.
Minutes after Trump spoke to reporters, he repeated his warning of retaliation in a social media post, calling the incident “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” and saying Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”
“There will be very serious retaliation,” Trump wrote.
In November, al-Sharaa grew to become the primary Syrian head of state to go to the White House, as Damascus seeks nearer ties with the US after the autumn of the Assad dictatorship final yr.
“He’s a very strong leader,” Trump instructed reporters on the time, calling al-Sharaa “a tough guy from a tough place.” The go to got here after the US partially lifted sanctions on Syria earlier this yr, marking a serious shift in relations between the two international locations.
The lethal assault comes a month after Syria joined the US-led coalition, which was shaped in 2014. The coalition has carried out army operations in opposition to ISIS in Syria and Iraq with the participation of a number of international locations.
US troops have operated for years throughout a number of areas in Syria, together with on the Al-Tanf garrison in the Homs province, the place they skilled Syrian associate forces as a part of the broader struggle in opposition to ISIS. American personnel have beforehand come underneath assault, and Saturday’s incident is the deadliest since a 2019 blast in the northern city of Manbij that struck a patrol, killing two US service members and two US civilians.
ISIS has not publicly claimed accountability for the assault.
A Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson mentioned Syrian forces had issued intelligence warnings to US-led forces and that the assailant was recognized to authorities forward of the lethal assault.
Nour Eddin al-Baba instructed Syrian state tv that management in the nation’s Internal Security Forces in the Badia area had alerted the US-led worldwide coalition in opposition to ISIS in Syria about preliminary data “indicating a possible breach or expected ISIS attacks.”
“However, (coalition) forces did not take the Syrian warnings into account,” al-Baba mentioned.
He mentioned the assault occurred as leaders from the coalition and Syria’s Internal Security Forces carried out a joint tour earlier Saturday in the Badia area. The delegation later entered a “fortified command facility” belonging to the Syrian Internal Security Forces management, the place the assailant opened hearth on the gate.
The attacker, who al-Baba mentioned had been underneath analysis for extremist concepts, exchanged hearth with Syrian and coalition guards earlier than being neutralized, the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson mentioned an evaluation taken on Wednesday indicated the attacker could have held extremist concepts. The results of that check was resulting from be issued on Sunday, “but fate decreed that the attack took place on Saturday, which is an administrative holiday,” al-Baba mentioned.
NCS has reached out to US Central Command for extra data on the incident.
Traffic on the freeway between Deir Ezzor and Damascus was halted on Saturday in reference to the incident, and video confirmed US fight plane overhead.
“U.S. helicopters intervened to evacuate the wounded to the al-Tanf base following the shooting incident,” official Syrian nationwide information company SANA reported. Al-Tanf is a US base in japanese Syria on the border with Iraq.
This story was up to date with extra data.
NCS’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.