Two US soldiers and a civilian killed in attack in Syria

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Two US soldiers and a civilian American interpreter have been killed in Syria on Saturday in an attack that also wounded three US troops.

They came under assault during a counterterrorism operation, according to the Pentagon. It is the first time US service members died in Syria since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad just over a year ago.

“The attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting a key leader engagement,” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on social media, referring to a meeting with local officials.

“Their mission was in support of ongoing counter-ISIS/counterterrorism operations in the region,” he added.

In a social media post US President Donald Trump called it “an Isis attack” in “a very dangerous part of Syria that is not fully controlled” by the Syrian government. Trump promised “very serious retaliation”.

Two members of Syria’s security forces were injured in the attack, Syria’s interior ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba told state TV.

The Pentagon said the attack occurred in Palmyra, a city in the desert of central Syria. US troops have long maintained a presence at the Al-Tanf military base about 200 kms to the south, along with Free Syrian Army allies. Syria’s interior ministry said it occurred in the desert region in the east of the country, which the government nominally controls but where Isis is known to be active.

Footage published by Syrian news outlets showed a convoy of armoured US military vehicles they said was driving through Palmyra city on Saturday. The Financial Times could not confirm when the footage was filmed.

US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said the attack was “an ambush by a lone Isis gunman” who was killed.

The gunman was a member of Syria’s security forces who did not hold a leadership role, al-Baba said. An internal assessment several days ago suggested the attacker “may have held extremist beliefs” and a decision on his continued employment was due next week, he added.

Syria’s security forces comprise a patchwork of different factions that helped president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Islamist rebels topple former dictator Bashar al-Assad last year. The ministry of defence has also begun to recruit new members.

Al-Baba said Syria’s security forces had warned their international partners about “possible breaches or attacks” by Isis but that “these warnings were not taken into consideration”.

US forces are in Syria primarily to combat Isis. There were roughly 2,000 American troops in the country in December 2024, but in April the Pentagon said it would bring that level down to “less than 1,000” because the terrorist group’s capabilities had reduced.

The US military has increased its co-operation with Damascus on Isis in recent months.

Washington’s primary ally in the fight against Isis has been the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia which controls the country’s north-east. Talks to merge the SDF and Damascus’s security forces have stalled, despite pressure from Washington to come to a resolution.

Last month, Ahmed al-Sharra became the first Syrian president to visit the White House since the country’s independence in 1946.

Sharaa formally joined the 89-country coalition to defeat Isis during his meeting with Trump, who called the Syrian president “a very strong leader”.

Sharaa has courted western and Arab states which, at Washington’s urging, have lifted most of the economic sanctions imposed on Assad’s Syria and built closer ties with the new government.

But sectarian violence has erupted at times since Assad’s fall, including clashes between government-backed forces and gunmen from the country’s Alawite and Druze religious minorities in which hundreds of civilians from both communities were killed.

US defence 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.”