Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter were killed, and three others were wounded, when an unidentified attacker opened fire on a joint patrol in the central Syrian town of Palmyra, the Pentagon said Saturday, updating earlier reports that had cited only injuries.
Earlier Saturday, a U.S. official told Reuters that as many as four U.S. service members were wounded, some critically, in the shooting. The official cautioned that casualty figures could change as more information became available.
Two US soldiers, civilian interpreter killed in rare Syria ambush
Syria’s state news agency SANA initially reported that American and Syrian military personnel were injured in the attack. It later quoted a security source as saying two Syrian service members were wounded and the assailant was killed, without providing further details.
According to SANA, U.S. helicopters evacuated the wounded to a U.S. military base in Syria’s Al-Tanf region near the Iraqi border.
Two local Syrian officials earlier told Reuters that a convoy of Syrian military forces and U.S. troops from the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group came under fire while on patrol in Palmyra. They confirmed there were casualties but did not specify numbers.
The Pentagon did not immediately release further details on the attacker or the circumstances of the shooting.
The United States has troops stationed in northeastern and central Syria as part of a decade-long mission to support Kurdish-led forces battling Islamic State, which was defeated territorially in 2019 but continues to stage attacks across the country.
First published: 16:16, 12.13.25