By Tom Ozimek
Contributing Writer
Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed, and three others were injured in an ambush by an ISIS gunman in Syria on Saturday, according to the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on social media that the attack occurred in the central Syrian town of Palmyra as U.S. forces were conducting a key leader engagement in support of ongoing counter-ISIS and counterterrorism operations.
“Today in Palmyra, Syria, two United States Army soldiers and one civilian U.S. interpreter were killed, and three were wounded,” Parnell said, adding that the incident is under active investigation.
U.S. Central Command said the casualties resulted from “an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman,” who was engaged by U.S. forces and killed.
The names of the fallen U.S. soldiers and identifying information about their units are being withheld pending notification of their next of kin. Officials said the information will be released no sooner than 24 hours after families have been notified, in line with Department of War policy.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, mourned the slain soldiers, saying that the incident is a reminder of the cost of freedom.
“The price of freedom is not free,” he said in a post on social media.
“Today, we mourn two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter lost in a tragic attack. As a veteran — and the son of a soldier who just spent a year deployed — my heart breaks for these families. We honor their sacrifice and pray for their loved ones.”
Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a security source, reported that two Syrian service members were also wounded in the attack, without giving further details.
SANA reported that U.S. helicopters evacuated the wounded to a U.S. base in Syria’s Al-Tanf region near the Iraqi border.
Earlier, two local Syrian officials told Reuters that a convoy of Syrian military forces and U.S.-led coalition troops came under fire.
The United States maintains troops in northeastern Syria as part of an international coalition seeking to prevent a resurgence of the ISIS terrorist group, which lost its territorial control in Syria in 2019, but continues to carry out sporadic attacks.
Last month, Syria joined the coalition as Damascus sought to improve ties with Western countries following last year’s collapse of Bashar Assad’s rule, after insurgents seized control of the capital.
Washington had no diplomatic relations with Syria during the Assad era, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family regime. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa made a rare visit to Washington in November, where he held talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
That meeting came six months after Trump and Sharaa met in Saudi Arabia and days after the United States lifted terrorism-related sanctions on the Syrian leader.
ISIS was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its sleeper cells remain active. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, a Netherlands-based think tank, estimates the group still has between 1,500 and 3,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Although the footprint of ISIS in the Middle East has diminished, the group has expanded its reach globally and remained the world’s deadliest terrorist organization through the end of 2024, per ICCT. Following the 2019 collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq and the loss of tens of thousands of fighters, the group has restructured itself both organizationally and operationally.
“In 2025, [ISIS] relies primarily on a dynamic network of regional affiliates who operate with a greater autonomy of action than ever before, with Afghanistan-based IS-Khorasan being the most prominent branch linked to numerous high-profile attacks,” ICCT associate fellow Adrian Shtuni wrote in a July note.
In early December, federal authorities arrested an Afghan national in Virginia on suspicion of providing material support to ISIS, marking the third such arrest involving Afghan nationals in about a week and renewing scrutiny of the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome resettlement program, under which nearly 190,000 Afghans were brought to the United States after the 2021 withdrawal.
In a separate case, Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested on Nov. 26 in connection with the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington. One of the victims, Sarah Beckstrom, later died from her injuries, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, remains in serious condition, though Trump recently said Wolfe is recovering.
Lakanwal had worked with the CIA during the war in Afghanistan. Authorities charged him with first-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to kill, among other charges.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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