Syria has arrested five people suspected of having links to the shooting of US and Syrian troops in the central Syrian town of Palmyra yesterday, the Interior Ministry says.
Two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead. The Syrian Interior Ministry has described the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathizing with the Islamic State.
“Our units carried out a precise and decisive security operation in the city of Palmyra, following a cowardly terrorist attack carried out yesterday by an individual affiliated with the Islamic State,” Syria’s Interior Ministry says in a statement.
“The operation was conducted in full coordination with the General Intelligence Service and international coalition forces, and resulted in the arrest of five suspects, who were immediately referred for questioning.”
An investigation is under way to determine whether the attacker was linked to ISIL, but Trump on Saturday blamed the armed group that had seized territories across Syria and Iraq in 2014.
The attack on US forces was the first to inflict casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
Three US military members were injured in the attack, as well as at least two Syrian soldiers, according to government and media reports.
Trump said in a social media post that he had received confirmation that the injured US soldiers were “doing well”.
He warned, however, that there would be serious consequences for what he described as an ISIL attack.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump wrote. “The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation.”
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