Two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed while on patrol in the city of Palmyra in central Syria on Saturday, according to officials with U.S. Central Command and the Department of War.
Sean Parnell, chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, says that U.S. forces are working in conjunction with Syrian forces to carry out "on-going counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region."
U.S. President Donald Trump released a statement on social media, calling the attack "an ISIS attack against the U.S. and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them." President Trump also added that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa "is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack."
Al-Sharaa, an ex-rebel commander of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and designated terrorist group by the United States, visited the White House last month to cement a move to join a U.S.-led international coalition to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani condemned the attack on Saturday, with President Trump vowing: "We will retaliate."
A Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson also stated on Saturday that Syrian forces had "issued intelligence warnings to US-led forces and that the assailant was known to authorities ahead of the deadly attack", reported by CNN.
Three other U.S. service members were also wounded in the attack.
