US, Syria step up coordination after attack on troops in Palmyra

DAMASCUS

Syria arrested several people suspected of involvement in a deadly attack that killed two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter in the central town of Palmyra, as Damascus and Washington stepped up coordination against Islamic State in the wake of the assault.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday that five suspects had been detained following an operation carried out in coordination with “international coalition forces,” adding that they had been “immediately referred for questioning.”

The arrests come a day after an attacker opened fire on a convoy of US and Syrian forces in Palmyra before being shot dead. The Interior Ministry described the assailant as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathising with Islamic State.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the attack by phone with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani on Sunday. Shibani “offered condolences and reiterated the commitment of the Syrian government to degrade and destroy the shared threat of ISIS,” US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa also sent a message of condolences to US President Donald Trump, expressing his country’s “solidarity with the victims’ families.”

Syrian authorities said the attacker had been assessed only days before the shooting, with officials concluding he may have held extremist views. A decision on his future role had been pending, according to the Interior Ministry.

Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told state television that the gunman had been due to be dismissed on Sunday for his “extremist Islamist ideas.” A Syrian security official said the attacker had served in the security forces for more than 10 months and had been transferred between several cities before his posting to Palmyra.

A separate Syrian security official said that 11 members of the general security forces were arrested for questioning following the attack, while another Interior Ministry official said a wider “security campaign” was under way across the Syrian desert to track “Daesh sleeper cells,” using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The United States said the attack was carried out by an Islamic State militant. President Trump vowed “very serious retaliation”, describing the incident as “an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the US soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the shooting occurred. Three other US troops wounded in the incident were “doing well,” Trump said.

Syrian state media said two members of the Syrian security forces were also wounded.

The Interior Ministry said an IS member had “infiltrated” a meeting between Syrian and American officers at a Syrian base in Palmyra before carrying out the attack, though a Pentagon official said the shooting occurred “in an area where the Syrian president does not have control.”

The attack has placed renewed focus on Islamic State’s continued presence in Syria’s vast desert regions, despite the group’s territorial defeat in 2019. Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was controlled by the group at the height of its expansion.

US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the attack only “reinforces” Washington’s strategy to “enable capable Syrian partners … to hunt down ISIS networks, deny them safe haven, and prevent their resurgence.”

Syria formally joined the US-led global coalition against Islamic State last month, following President Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington. Damascus has since intensified cooperation with coalition forces, while Syrian authorities last month arrested more than 70 people accused of links to the group in a nationwide campaign.

The United States maintains troops in northeastern Syria as part of its decade-long effort against Islamic State, which once controlled large swathes of Syria and Iraq.

Syria is now governed by former rebels who toppled Bashar al-Assad last year after a 13-year civil war. Several members of the current leadership were previously part of Syria’s former Al Qaeda branch, which later broke with the group and clashed with Islamic State.

On Sunday, Syrian state media reported a separate attack in the northwestern province of Idlib, where gunmen shot dead four members of the Interior Ministry’s road security department. There was no immediate indication that the incident was linked to the Palmyra attack.