Two U.S. Soldiers, Civilian Killed in Syria

AFP

U.S. forces patrol in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli in the Hasakeh province, on Jan. 9, 2025.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that there will be “very serious retaliation” after two U.S. soldiers and one civilian interpreter were killed in an ambush in Syria on Saturday.

Three others were wounded in the attack, which was carried out by a single ISIS gunman, U.S. Central Command and the Department of Defence said in statements Saturday.

“We will retaliate,” President Trump told reporters at the White House. He said the country is mourning “the loss of the three great American patriots” and praying for the three wounded, who “seem to be doing pretty well.”

The president noted the U.S.’ cooperation with Syrian forces. “Syria, by the way, was fighting along with us,” President Trump said, adding that Syria’s new president is “devastated by what happened.”

The soldiers’ “mission was in support of on-going counter-ISIS / counter-terrorism operations in the region,” wrote Sean Parnell, chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, in a statement on X. He added that the names of those killed were being withheld until next of kin are notified.

Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said the attacker was killed by partner forces.

“Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” Hegseth wrote on X.

Minutes after President Trump spoke to reporters, he repeated his warning of retaliation in a social media post, calling the incident “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” and saying Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

“There will be very serious retaliation,” President Trump wrote.

The deadly attack comes a month after Syria joined the U.S.-led coalition, which was formed in 2014. The coalition has conducted military operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq with the participation of multiple countries.

U.S. troops have operated for years across multiple locations in Syria, including at the Al-Tanf garrison in the Homs province, where they trained Syrian partner forces as part of the wider fight against ISIS. American personnel have previously come under attack, and Saturday’s incident is the deadliest since a 2019 blast in the northern town of Manbij that struck a patrol, killing two US service members and two US civilians.

ISIS has not publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Traffic on the highway between Deir Ezzor and Damascus was halted on Saturday in connection with the incident, and video showed U.S. combat aircraft overhead.

“U.S. helicopters intervened to evacuate the wounded to the al-Tanf base following the shooting incident,” official Syrian national news agency SANA reported. Al-Tanf is a US base in eastern Syria on the border with Iraq.



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