Damascus, Syria: President Donald Trump stated Saturday that “there will likely be very severe retaliation” after two US service members and one American civilian had been killed in an assault in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group.
“This was an ISIS assault in opposition to the US, and Syria, in a really harmful a part of Syria, that’s not totally managed by them,” he stated in a social media publish.
The American president instructed reporters on the White House that Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what occurred” and careworn that Syria was preventing alongside US troops. Trump, in his publish, stated al-Sharaa was “extraordinarily offended and disturbed by this assault.”
US Central Command stated three service members had been wounded in an ambush on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) by a lone IS member in central Syria. Trump stated the three “appear to be doing fairly properly.” The US army stated the gunman was killed.
The assault on US troops in Syria was the primary with fatalities because the fall of President Bashar Assad a yr in the past.
“There will likely be very severe retaliation,” Trump stated on his Truth Social platform.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, stated the civilian killed was a US interpreter. Parnell stated the assault focused troopers concerned within the ongoing counter-terrorism operations within the area and is underneath energetic investigation.
The taking pictures happened close to historic Palmyra, in response to the state-run SANA information company, which earlier stated two members of Syria’s safety power and a number of other US service members had been wounded. The casualties had been taken by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison close to the border with Iraq and Jordan.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated the attacker was a member of the Syrian safety power.
Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesman Nour al-Din al-Baba stated a gunman linked to IS opened hearth on the gate of a army publish. He added that Syrian authorities are wanting into whether or not the gunman was an IS member or solely carried its excessive ideology. He denied reviews that prompt that the attacker was a safety member.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Let or not it’s recognized, for those who goal Americans – wherever on this planet – you’ll spend the remainder of your transient, anxious life understanding the United States will hunt you, discover you, and ruthlessly kill you.”
The US has a whole bunch of troops deployed in jap Syria as a part of a coalition preventing IS.
The US had no diplomatic relations with Syria underneath Assad, however ties have warmed because the fall of the five-decade Assad household rule. Al-Sharaa, made a historic go to to Washington final month the place he held talks with Trump. It was the primary White House go to by a Syrian head of state because the Middle Eastern nation gained independence from France in 1946 and got here after the US lifted sanctions imposed on Syria throughout the Assads’ rule.
Al-Sharaa led the insurgent forces that toppled Bashar Assad in December 2024 and was named the nation’s interim chief in January. Al-Sharaa as soon as had ties to al-Qaida and had a $10 million US bounty on his head.
Last month, Syria joined the worldwide coalition preventing in opposition to the IS as Damascus improves its relations with Western nations following the ouster of Assad when insurgents captured his seat of energy in Damascus.
IS was defeated on the battlefield in Syria in 2019 however the group’s sleeper cells nonetheless perform lethal assaults within the nation. The United Nations says the group nonetheless has between 5,000 and seven,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
AP
