Category: International News

United States President Donald Trump has vowed “very serious retaliation” following an attack by the Islamic State (IS) group that killed two American troops and a civilian interpreter in central Syria.

Trump, reacting on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, described the victims as “three great American patriots” and said the attack would not go unanswered.

The Pentagon confirmed that the incident occurred in Palmyra, a historic city in central Syria known for its UNESCO-listed ancient ruins and previously controlled by the IS group during the peak of its territorial expansion.

Pentagon spokesman, Mr Sean Parnell, said the troops were conducting a key leader engagement in support of counterterrorism operations when the attack happened.

According to the U.S. Central Command, the incident was an ambush carried out by a lone IS gunman, who was later engaged and killed by security forces.

Trump said three other U.S. troops wounded in the attack were responding well to treatment.

He described the incident as “an ISIS attack against the US and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria,” noting that the area was not fully under government control.

The U.S. envoy to Syria, Mr Tom Barrack, said the ambush targeted a joint patrol involving American forces and the Syrian government.

The attack is the first such incident reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew Syria’s longtime ruler, Bashar al-Assad, in December 2024, leading to renewed diplomatic engagement between Damascus and Washington.

Trump said Syria’s new President, Mr Ahmed al-Sharaa, who visited the White House last month, was “extremely angry and disturbed” by the attack.

In a statement posted on X, Syria’s Foreign Minister, Mr Asaad al-Shaibani, condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the families of the victims and the American people.

“We strongly condemn the terrorist attack that targeted a joint Syria-US counterterrorism patrol near Palmyra,” he said, wishing the wounded a speedy recovery.

A Syrian military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the shooting occurred during a meeting between Syrian and American officers at a military base in Palmyra.

However, a Pentagon official told journalists that the attack took place in an area not fully controlled by the Syrian government.

Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman, Mr Anwar al-Baba, said there had been prior warnings from internal security forces about a possible IS infiltration in the desert region.

He claimed that allied international coalition forces did not sufficiently act on the intelligence warnings.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the meeting was part of a broader U.S. strategy to strengthen its presence in Syria’s desert areas.

Meanwhile, Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that helicopters evacuated the wounded personnel to the Al-Tanf base in southern Syria, where U.S. troops are stationed as part of the international coalition against IS.

The IS group seized large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014 before being territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, although it continues to maintain cells, particularly in desert regions.

U.S. forces remain deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast and at the Al-Tanf base near the Jordanian border.

The United States Government has proposed new mandatory screening requirements for travellers seeking entry under its Visa Waiver Programme.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in a notice released on Wednesday, said applicants for the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) would be required to submit their social media history covering the past five years.

DHS said the proposed measure, to be published in the Federal Register, is aimed at strengthening national security and follows Executive Order 14161 signed in January 2025 to enhance foreign-threat detection.

According to reports the ESTA applicants are currently asked to provide their social media details voluntarily. The new guideline, however, makes the disclosure compulsory.

“The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last five years,” the notice stated.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the revision would improve identity verification, curb fraudulent applications and detect potential security risks.

Under the expanded requirements, applicants will also be expected to provide additional personal data, including email addresses used in the last 10 years, phone numbers from the past five years, IP addresses and metadata from submitted photographs.

The proposal further seeks to introduce more comprehensive family information and a wider range of biometric data, such as facial recognition, fingerprints, iris scans and DNA samples.

According to DHS, the move aligns with updated federal biographic-data policies and will enhance the government’s capacity to validate identities.

Another key change in the proposal is the planned transition from the existing ESTA web portal to a mobile-only application system.

If approved, the revised rules will affect travellers from the 40 countries currently under the U.S. Visa Waiver Programme. Over 14 million ESTA applications are processed annually.

DHS said it is inviting public comments on the proposed changes within a 60-day window from the date of publication.

The proposal, if adopted, would represent one of the most extensive expansions of digital identity and social-media vetting requirements in U.S. immigration history.

The United States Government has announced plans to introduce a compulsory social media screening policy for foreign nationals entering the country under its visa-waiver programme.

According to an official notice published on Tuesday in the Federal Register, the proposal will require travellers from 42 visa-exempt nations, including the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Japan, to submit details of their social media history before they are allowed entry into the US.

At present, visitors from these countries are only required to obtain the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), which mandates the submission of basic personal information.

However, under the new proposal, applicants will be compelled to disclose all social media accounts and activity spanning the last five years as a mandatory component of the ESTA application process.

The notice explained that the requirement to provide “social media histories from the last five years” represents a significant expansion of the categories of personal data the US collects from visa-free travellers.

It added that the administration of President Donald Trump also intends to gather what it described as “high-value data fields,” which include phone numbers used within the last five years, email addresses used over the past ten years, personal details of family members, as well as biometric information.

The public has been given a 60-day window to submit comments and observations on the proposed rule before it is finalised.

The proposed policy forms part of the US Government’s renewed crackdown on irregular migration and enhanced border security measures. Since returning to office, President Trump has introduced stricter entry requirements, including the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel to make arrests.

The United States is scheduled to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Mexico and Canada, an event expected to attract millions of international visitors.

Observers say the heightened screening measure could affect the number of football fans willing to travel to the US for the global tournament.