President Donald Trump said on Saturday there would be “very serious retaliation” after two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in an ambush in Syria on Saturday. Three more people were injured in the attack carried out by an ISIS fighter, the US Central Command and the US Department of Defense said in statements on Saturday.
“We will retaliate,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House.
He said the nation is mourning “the loss of three great American patriots” and praying for the three injured people “who appear to be stable.”
President Trump acknowledged US cooperation with Syrian forces. “By the way, Syria fought alongside us,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the new Syrian president was said to be “devastated by what happened.”
The Iowa governor's office said Saturday night that the soldiers were members of the state's National Guard. The names of the soldiers will be announced at 5 p.m. on Sunday, the statement said. Three other Iowa National Guard members were injured, two of whom were immediately evacuated to medical facilities, the governor's office said.
“Our hearts are heavy today and we send our prayers and deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of our soldiers killed in action,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said. “I ask all Iowans to join together in prayer and support during this incredibly difficult time.”
About 1,800 Iowa Army National Guard soldiers began deploying to the Middle East in late May to support Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. mission to defeat ISIS, the statement said.
“The soldiers' mission is to support ongoing operations against ISIS and against terrorist groups in the region,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's press secretary, wrote in a statement on the social media platform.
He added that the names of those who died are being withheld until next of kin are notified.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the attacker was killed by coalition partners.
“Let it be known that if you target Americans—anywhere in the world—you will spend the rest of your short and anxious life knowing that the United States will hunt you down, find you, and kill you mercilessly,” Hegseth wrote on social media.
Minutes after Trump spoke to reporters, he repeated his warning of retaliation in a social media post, calling the incident “an attack by ISIS against the United States and Syria in a very dangerous area of Syria that is not completely under their control” and saying that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and alarmed by this attack.”
“There will be very serious retaliation,” Trump wrote.
CNN notes that ISIS has not publicly claimed responsibility for the attack. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani condemned Saturday's attack. “We express our condolences to the families of the victims, the government and the people of the United States and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” Al-Shaibani wrote on social media.
In November, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House as Damascus sought closer ties with the United States after the fall of Assad's government last year, CNN recalls.
“He is a very strong leader,” Trump told reporters at the time, calling al-Sharaa a “tough guy from a tough place.” The visit took place after the US partially lifted sanctions on Syria earlier this year, marking a major change in relations between the two countries.
The deadly attack occurred a month after Syria joined the US-led coalition established in 2014. The coalition conducts military operations against IS in Syria and Iraq with the participation of many countries.
The US military has been active for years in various locations in Syria, including the Tanf garrison in Homs province, where it trains its Syrian counterparts as part of the broader fight against IS. U.S. personnel have been targeted in the past and Saturday's incident was the deadliest since a 2019 bombing in the northern city of Manbij that killed a patrolman and left two American soldiers and two civilians dead.
A spokesman for the Syrian Interior Ministry said the Syrian army shared intelligence with US-led forces and that the attacker was known to the authorities before the deadly attack.
Nour Eddin al-Baba told Syrian state television that the leadership of the country's Internal Security Forces in the Badiya region had warned the US-led international coalition fighting IS in Syria about preliminary information “indicating possible violations or expected attacks by ISIS”.
“However, the coalition forces did not take into account the warnings of the Syrians,” Mr. al-Baba said.
He said the attack occurred when coalition leaders and Syrian internal security forces were together inspecting the Badia area the previous Saturday. The delegation then entered a “fortified command post” under the leadership of Syria's internal security forces, where the attacker opened fire at the gate.
Al-Baba said the attacker exchanged fire with Syrian defense forces and the coalition before being neutralized.
The spokesman said Wednesday's assessment showed the attacker may have had extremist ideas. The results of that test were supposed to be announced Sunday, “but fate decided that the attack took place on Saturday, which was an administrative holiday,” al-Baba said.
Traffic on the highway between Deir Ezzor and Damascus was suspended on Saturday due to the incident and video showed US warplanes overhead.
Syria's official national news agency SANA reported: “US helicopters intervened to evacuate the wounded to al-Tanf base after the shooting.” CNN recalls that Al-Tanf is a US base in eastern Syria, bordering Iraq.
* ISIS is a terrorist organization banned in Russia
