President Donald Trump said there will be “serious retaliation” after two US Army soldiers and an interpreter were killed in what officials said was an attack by an Islamic State gunman that also wounded three other Americans.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump wrote on a social media post on Saturday.
“There will be very serious retaliation,” Trump said in the post. The president did not elaborate on what the retaliation might be, either in the post or in comments to reporters as he left the White House to attend the Army-Navy football game Saturday.
A statement from US Central Command said the group was ambushed by a lone gunman who they identified as an Islamic State militant. The gunman was killed. The attack occurred in the city of Palmyra while the soldiers were conducting counter-terrorism operations, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a separate statement
Palmyra is outside the control of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Al-Sharaa met with Trump at the White House in November, securing additional sanctions relief. He promised to join a US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State.
The US has about 1,000 service members stationed in Syria, according to a Pentagon official.
The Pentagon is withholding the identities of the victims until 24 hours after their families have been notified.
US forces have been working with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to combat remnants of Islamic State forces following Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster.
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