Trump vows 'very serious retaliation'

2 US troops, civilian interpreter killed in attack by member of Syrian security forces

CENTCOM says ‘ambush’ carried out by a ‘lone ISIS gunman’ who was killed in the incident; Syria claims its ‘prior warnings’ of likely Islamic State ‘infiltration’ were not heeded

Two US troops and an American civilian interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an extremist member of Syrian security forces opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the deaths on X after Syria’s state media earlier reported that an attack in the city of Palmyra had wounded American and Syrian troops.

“An ambush by a lone ISIS gunman” resulted in the deaths and injuries to three additional troops, said CENTCOM, which oversees the US military in the Middle East.

“The gunman was engaged and killed,” it said.

Three local officials later told Reuters that the attacker was a member of Syrian security forces. A Syrian interior ministry spokesperson told Syrian TV that the attacker did not have a leadership role in the security forces. He did not say whether the man was a junior member.

“On December 10, an evaluation was issued indicating that this attacker might hold extremist ideas, and a decision regarding him was due to be issued tomorrow, on Sunday,” the spokesperson, Noureddine el-Baba, told Syrian television channel Al-Ikhbariya.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the attack occurred as the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US–Syrian government patrol.”

US President Donald Trump said that America mourned “the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria,” and vowed to retaliate.

“This was an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump asserted “The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation.”

“The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X.

Parnell said the identities of the deceased troops would be withheld until after their families were notified.

Syria’s interior ministry asserted on Saturday that it had warned the US-led coalition of a possible breach by ISIS fighters, but the warnings were not heeded.

“There were prior warnings from the internal security command to allied forces in the desert region,” ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said in an interview on state television. “The international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible ISIS infiltration into consideration.”

The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.

A Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the attack “took place in an area where the Syrian president does not have control.”

Syrian state news agency SANA, quoting a security source, earlier reported that several US troops and two Syrian service members had been wounded in the attack.

The soldiers were taking part in a “joint field tour” in Palmyra, which was once under the control of ISIS, SANA reported.

A Syrian military official who requested anonymity said that the shots were fired “during a meeting between Syrian and American officers” at a Syrian base in Palmyra.

A witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said he heard the shots coming from inside the base.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, the meeting came as part of an “American strategy to strengthen its presence and foothold in the Syrian desert.”

Helicopters evacuated the wounded to the Al-Tanf base in southern Syria, where American troops are deployed, SANA said.

Last month, during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the US-led global coalition against ISIS.

US forces are deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at Al-Tanf near the border with Jordan.