•US security forces in Syria
Syria’s interior ministry said yesterday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was set to be fired for extremism.
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter were killed in what the Syrian government described as a “terrorist attack” on Saturday, while Washington said it had been carried out by an Islamic State group (IS) militant who was subsequently killed, reports AFP.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire” the perpetrator from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told our correspondent yesterday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra”.
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was controlled by IS at the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew long-time Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
US President Donald Trump vowed “very serious retaliation” following Saturday’s attack.
A Syrian defence ministry official told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that prior to the attack, US forces had “arrived by land from the direction of the Al-Tanf military base” in southeastern Syria.
“The joint Syrian-American delegation first toured the city of Palmyra, then proceeded to the T-4 airbase before returning to a base in Palmyra,” the source added.
A Syrian military official who requested anonymity said on Saturday that the shots were fired “during a meeting between Syrian and American officers” at a Syrian base in Palmyra.
However, a Pentagon official speaking on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that the attack “took place in an area where the Syrian president does not have control”.
In response to the attack, authorities launched an operation against IS group cells across Homs province, where Palmyra is located, Syrian state television said yesterday.
US Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack yesterday said the attack only “reinforces” the US strategy to “enable capable Syrian partners, with limited US operational support, to hunt down ISIS networks, deny them safe haven, and prevent their resurgence”.
Syria’s interior ministry, meanwhile, said in a statement that “the continuation of terrorist attacks reflects the importance of Syria’s choice to engage internationally and play an active role in combating terrorism”.
Warnings
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US–Syrian government patrol”.
Trump called the incident “an ISIS attack against the US and Syria in a very dangerous part of Syria”, using another term for IS.
He said the three other US troops wounded in the incident were “doing well”.
The official SANA news agency said the attack also wounded two members of the Syrian security forces.
In an interview on state television on Saturday, the interior ministry’s Baba said there had been “prior warnings from the internal security command to allied forces in the desert region”.
“The international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible IS infiltration into consideration,” he said.
IS seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during Syria’s civil war before being territorially defeated in the country five years later.
Its fighters still maintain a presence, however, particularly in Syria’s vast desert.
Last month, during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the US-led global coalition against IS.
US forces are deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at Al-Tanf near the border with Jordan.
