Trump vows ‘very serious retaliation’ after 3 Americans killed in Syria attack blamed on Daesh
US President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” on Saturday after two US service members and one American civilian were killed in central Syria in an attack Washington says was carried out by a Daesh gunman.
US Central Command said three other service members were wounded when a lone attacker opened fire on US troops involved in counterterrorism operations near historic Palmyra. The gunman was killed at the scene. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the civilian killed was a US interpreter.
Trump said Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa was “devastated” and “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” stressing that Syrian government forces are now fighting alongside US troops against Daesh. The incident is the first deadly attack on US personnel in Syria since the fall of Bashar Assad a year ago.
Syrian state media initially reported that members of Syria’s security forces were among the wounded. Interior Ministry spokesman Nour Al-Din Al-Baba later said the attacker was linked to Daesh and had recently been flagged for extremist views within an internal security unit, but insisted he held no command role.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed retribution in a post on X, warning: “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.”
Hundreds of US troops remain deployed in eastern and central Syria, including at the Al-Tanf garrison, as part of the international coalition against Daesh. The group lost its territory in Syria in 2019 but is believed to retain several thousand fighters in Syria and Iraq and continues to stage sleeper-cell attacks.
