Two US service members and one American civilian interpreter have been killed and three other people wounded in an ambush by the ISIL (ISIS) group in central Syria, the US Central Command said.
The attack on US forces on Saturday was the first to inflict casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
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CENTCOM said in a post on X that the lone ISIL gunman was “engaged and killed”.
It added that, as a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Pentagon policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on X that the perpetrator was “killed by partner forces”.
“Let it be known, 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,” he wrote.
On Saturday, three local officials told the Reuters news agency that the assailant was a member of the Syrian security forces.
A Syrian interior ministry spokesperson told the Syrian television channel Al-Ikhbariya that the attacker did not have a leadership role in the security forces. He did not say whether the man was a junior member.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) state news agency reported earlier that Syrian security forces and US troops came under fire during a joint patrol near Palmyra in Syria’s central Homs region.
Traffic on the Deir Az Zor–Damascus highway was temporarily halted as military aircraft conducted overflights in the area, the agency said.
A security source told SANA that US helicopters evacuated those who were wounded to the al-Tanf base near the Iraqi border.
A Syrian military official who requested anonymity told the AFP news agency that the shots were fired “during a meeting between Syrian and American officers” at a Syrian base in Palmyra.
A witness in the city, who asked to remain anonymous, told the agency that he heard the shots coming from inside the base.
The US has troops stationed in northeastern Syria as part of a decade-long effort to help a Kurdish-led force there combat ISIL (ISIS).
ISIL captured Palmyra in 2015, at the height of its military ascendancy in Syria, before losing the city 10 months later. During that time, it destroyed several ancient sites and artefacts while using others to stage mass executions.
ISIL was vanquished in Syria in 2018, but still carries out sporadic attacks without controlling any territory inside Syria.
The war-ravaged nation has just marked one year since the ouster of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, but continues to face stiff security and economic challenges as it seeks to rebuild and recover after 14 years of ruinous civil war.