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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025.<\/p>\n
Alex Brandon \/ AP<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said Saturday that \u201cwe will retaliate\u201d after two U.S. service members and one American civilian were killed in a Syria attack that the U.S. blames on the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an ISIS attack,\u201d the American president told reporters at the White House before departing for the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore.<\/p>\n
He paid condolences to the three Americans killed and said three others who were wounded \u201cseem to be doing pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n
Two U.S. service members and one American civilian were killed and three other people wounded in an ambush on Saturday by a lone member of the Islamic State<\/a> group in central Syria<\/a>, the the U.S. military\u2019s Central Command said.<\/p>\n The attack on U.S. troops in Syria is the first to inflict fatalities since the fall of President Bashar Assad<\/a> a year ago.<\/p>\n Central Command said in a post on X that as a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Department of Defense policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified. The gunman was killed, it said.<\/p>\n Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said the civilian killed in the attack was a U.S. interpreter. He said the attack targeted soldiers involved in the on-going counter-terrorism operations in the region and is under active investigation.<\/p>\n The shooting took place near historic Palmyra<\/a>, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which earlier said two members of Syria\u2019s security force and several U.S. service members had been wounded. The casualties were taken by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison<\/a> near the border with Iraq and Jordan.<\/p>\n The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacker was a member of the Syrian security force. <\/p>\n Syria\u2019s Interior Ministry spokesman Nour al-Din al-Baba said a gunman linked to IS opened fire at the gate of a military post. He added that Syrian authorities are looking into whether the gunman was an IS member or only carried its extreme ideology. He denied reports that suggested that the attacker was a security member. <\/p>\n U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> posted on X: \u201cLet it be known, if you target Americans \u2014 anywhere in the world \u2014 you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.\u201d <\/p>\n The U.S. has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS.<\/p>\n Last month, Syria joined<\/a> the international coalition fighting against the IS as Damascus improves its relations with Western countries following the ouster of Assad when insurgents captured his seat of power in Damascus. <\/a><\/p>\n The U.S. had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family rule. The interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, made a <\/a>historic visit<\/a> to Washington last month where he held talks with President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n