Two US troops and an American civilian interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an extremist member of Syrian security forces opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the deaths on X after Syria’s state media earlier reported that an attack in the city of Palmyra had wounded American and Syrian troops.

“An ambush by a lone ISIS gunman” resulted in the deaths and injuries to three additional troops, said CENTCOM, which oversees the US military in the Middle East.

“The gunman was engaged and killed,” it said.

Three local officials later told Reuters that the attacker was a member of Syrian security forces. A Syrian interior ministry spokesperson told Syrian TV that the attacker did not have a leadership role in the security forces. He did not say whether the man was a junior member.

“On December 10, an evaluation was issued indicating that this attacker might hold extremist ideas, and a decision regarding him was due to be issued tomorrow, on Sunday,” the spokesperson, Noureddine el-Baba, told Syrian television channel Al-Ikhbariya.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the attack occurred as the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US–Syrian government patrol.”

US........

© The Times of Israel