Two United States soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in central Syria after a suspected member of the Islamic State (IS) group opened fire on a joint U.S.–Syrian patrol, officials have said.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the deaths in a statement posted on X, following earlier reports by Syrian state media that an attack in the ancient city of Palmyra had left American and Syrian personnel wounded.
CENTCOM said the incident was “an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman,” which resulted in the deaths of the two U.S. troops and the civilian interpreter, while three other American soldiers sustained injuries.
According to the command, the attacker was subsequently engaged and killed by security forces.
Pentagon spokesman, Mr Sean Parnell, said the soldiers were carrying out a “key leader engagement” in support of ongoing counterterrorism operations when the attack occurred.
Similarly, the U.S. envoy to Syria, Mr Tom Barrack, described the incident as an ambush targeting a joint patrol involving American forces and Syrian government personnel.
U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr Pete Hegseth, said the assailant was neutralised by partner forces, describing the attack as “savage.”
Parnell added that the identities of the deceased soldiers would be withheld until their families had been formally notified.
The attack is the first reported incident of its kind since Islamist-led forces overthrew Syria’s longtime ruler, Mr Bashar al-Assad, in December 2024, an event that led to renewed diplomatic and security cooperation between Damascus and Washington.
Earlier, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, quoted a security source as saying that several U.S. troops and two Syrian service members were wounded during the incident.
SANA reported that the soldiers were on a “joint field tour” in Palmyra, a city once under the control of the IS group during the height of its influence.
Palmyra is home to world-renowned ancient ruins designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, many of which were destroyed when the IS group occupied the area about a decade ago.
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.
A witness, who also requested anonymity, said he heard gunshots coming from inside the base.
However, a Pentagon official, speaking anonymously, told journalists that the attack took place in an area not fully under the control of the Syrian government.
In an interview with Syrian state television, Interior Ministry spokesman, Mr Anwar al-Baba, said there had been prior warnings from internal security forces to allied troops operating in the desert region about a possible IS infiltration.
He claimed that the international coalition forces did not adequately take the warnings into consideration.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group with an extensive network inside Syria, said the meeting was part of a broader American strategy to strengthen its presence in the Syrian desert.
SANA also reported that helicopters evacuated the wounded personnel to the Al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, where U.S. troops are stationed as part of the Washington-led global coalition against the IS group.
It would be recalled that last month, during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington, Syria formally joined the international coalition against IS.
The IS group seized large areas of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during Syria’s civil war before being territorially defeated in Syria in 2019.
Despite this, IS fighters are believed to still maintain a presence, particularly in Syria’s vast desert regions.
U.S. forces are currently deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at the Al-Tanf base near the Jordanian border.
