Two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Palmyra, central Syria, after an ambush by an Islamic State movement sniper. (IS), and the US has already promised to react with retaliation.
US Central Command (Centcom) reported that three other US soldiers were injured in the attack, adding that the shooter was shot at the scene.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that the third fatal victim was an American interpreter integrated into the delegation.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has already reacted, denouncing that it was an IS attack and promising “retaliation”, after offering condolences to the families of the victims.
According to Syrian state agency SANA, the joint delegation was shot at during a visit to the desert region of Palmyra.
Parnell explained that the US contingent was in the area for “a mission in support of ongoing operations against the Islamic State/counterterrorism”.
The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, classified the perpetrator of the ambush as “savage” and warned that any aggressor who attacks American citizens “will spend the rest of his short life” under the persecution of the United States “until he is eliminated”.
The attack, which is being investigated, is the first of its kind reported in Syria since an Islamist coalition, aligned with Washington, took power a year ago.
SANA reported that two members of the Syrian security forces were also injured.
A Syrian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shooting began when Syrian and American officers were meeting at a security headquarters in Palmyra.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the United Kingdom, reported that the delegation’s visit to Palmyra is part of a North American strategy to reinforce its presence in desert areas of the country.
The region was controlled by the IS group until 2019, the year in which it was defeated by an international coalition, although jihadist cells remain active in the Syrian desert.
The visit took place weeks after Syrian Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was in Washington, after Damascus joined the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition.
US forces in Syria maintain positions mainly in Kurdish areas in northern Syria and in the Al-Tanf base, near the border with Jordan.