According to the Pentagon, the attack took place in Palmyra, where the Americans were part of a delegation together with Syrian security forces with the aim of meeting local decision-makers and countering terrorism.
Several others were injured, including three other American servicemen. According to the AP news agency, they have been taken to the American military base al-Tanf.
"This was an ISIS attack on the United States, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria that they do not have full control over," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He further writes that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is "extremely angry" about the attack.
Security Forces Employee
According to US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the attacker was killed by Syrian forces.
Centcom, the US military command in the region, describes the attack as an ambush carried out by a lone IS gunman in a post on X .
According to sources at the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the attack was carried out by an employee of the Syrian security forces.
Had been flagged
This appears to be confirmed by Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Nour Eddin al-Baba. In a television interview, he said that the attacker did not have a leadership role in the security forces but that he had recently been flagged as a potential extremist, the state-run Sana news agency reported.
The spokesperson says that the US-led international coalition, which is fighting what remains of the terrorist group ISIS in Syria, had been warned in advance.
The international coalition did not heed the warnings about possible infiltration by IS, he says.
Whether the person had direct connections to IS or was only a sympathizer is being investigated.
