ISTANBUL — President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate for the deaths of two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter in central Syria on Saturday in an attack on a joint U.S.-Syrian security patrol that officials blamed on the Islamic State militant group.
Three other U.S. soldiers and two members of Syria’s security forces were injured, according to U.S. officials and Syria’s state news agency. The attacker, identified by U.S. Central Command as a “lone gunman” and a member of the Islamic State, was killed by “partner forces,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a post on X.
The attack at a fortified base in the city of Palmyra has forced Trump to reckon with a military mission, the long-running U.S. effort in Syria to combat ISIS, about which he has previously voiced skepticism. A Syrian interior ministry spokesman appeared to indicate the alleged attacker was a member of the country’s security services, a revelation that highlighted concerns about extremists serving in the Syrian government.
Trump, speaking briefly to reporters outside the White House, called the slain Americans “three great patriots.” The deaths of the two troops were the Pentagon’s first overseas combat deaths since January 2024, when three U.S. soldiers were killed in northeast Jordan, just across from the Syrian border, at a base known as Tower 22.
“We will retaliate,” Trump said.
Since Syrian rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad a year ago, the United States and Syria’s new government have touted warmer ties and closer cooperation against terrorism.
Sharaa is now Syria’s interim president and Trump has become one of his most vocal supporters, hosting the former al-Qaeda leader in the Oval Office last month and hailing him as a “tough guy” while working to remove Assad-era U.S. sanctions on Syria.
But the attack Saturday, which Central Command called an “ambush,” highlighted the steep obstacles Sharaa’s government confronts, including its tenuous control of security in some areas of the country, where it’s challenged by separatist movements, remnants of the former regime and extremist groups including the Islamic State.
Trump, writing on Truth Social, said the patrol was attacked “in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not full controlled by them.” Sharaa, he said, was “extremely angered and disturbed by this attack.”
The suspected attacker’s apparent affiliation with Syria’s fledgling security services seemed certain to amplify concerns about the rebel forces that have suddenly assumed authority in the country, including foreign fighters and members of extremist factions that were part of the sprawling effort to topple Assad after more than 50 years of his family’s rule.
The conduct and ideology of Syrian government forces have aroused alarm multiple times over the past year. Government fighters have been accused of perpetrating atrocities during sectarian fighting that killed thousands of people in the country’s coastal regions and in southern Syria. Syria’s government has condemned the violations and begun prosecuting members of its security forces accused of crimes.
Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state-run television that the alleged attacker was subject to weekly “assessments” given to thousands of security members in the region. His assessment, Baba said, indicated he might have held “extremist views.”
Syria’s internal security services warned the U.S.-led coalition of a possible ISIS attack, Baba said, but the guidance was not taken “into consideration.” The gunman attacked the soldiers at the entrance to a fortified base, he said, after they had finished their patrol.
The U.S. soldiers were “conducting a key leader engagement” while engaged in a counterterrorism operation, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on X. The identities of the soldiers killed were being withheld pending notification of their families, he said.
The victims of the attack were evacuated by helicopter to the U.S. military base at Al-Tanf, about 75 miles south of Palmyra, the Syrian news agency reported. Palmyra, a UNESCO heritage site famed for its Roman ruins, was occupied for several years during Syria’s civil war by the Islamic State in a region where the militant group continues to launch attacks.
The U.S. has maintained a military presence in Syria since 2015, when President Barack Obama sent troops to partner with Kurdish-led Syrian forces against the Islamic State. U.S. troops remained in Syria after the defeat of ISIS in 2019 to counter the group’s still-dangerous remnants, military officials say.
Trump’s relationship with Syria has been complicated. During his first term, the country was mired in the civil war between the Assad regime and several rebel groups, and the United States was fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
At one point, Trump, in keeping with his pledge to avoid foreign conflicts, announced that ISIS had been defeated and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Syria, only to reverse course. He also ordered airstrikes against the Assad regime.
During Sharaa’s Oval Office meeting, the first by a Syrian leader, the White House announced that Syria was formally joining the global anti-Islamic State coalition.
“We have now had multiple collaborations with the Syrian government to counter very specific ISIS threats,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, told a conference on Syria last week at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
Lamothe reported from Washington and El Chamaa reported from Beirut. Pradnya Joshi contributed to this report from Washington
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