- The Syrian government calls the attack on a US convoy a “terrorist attack”.
- Syria arrests 11 security forces after killing US personnel.
- Washington says deadly attack was carried out by Daesh militants.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans the day before in the central Palmyra region was a member of the security forces who should be fired for extremism.
Two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in what the Syrian government called a “terrorist attack”, while Washington said it was carried out by an ISIS militant who was later killed.
Syrian authorities “had decided to dismiss him” from the security forces before the attack for having extremist ideas and had planned to do so on Sunday, Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and questioned after the attack.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gunman had been with the security forces “for more than 10 months and had been posted in several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was controlled by ISIS at the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since the overthrow of longtime Syrian regime Bashar al-Assad in December last year.
US President Donald Trump has promised “very serious retaliation” following Saturday’s attack.
A Syrian Defense Ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that before the attack, US forces had “arrived by land from the Al-Tanf military base” in southeastern Syria, near the border with Jordan.
“The joint Syrian-American delegation first visited the city of Palmyra, then went to the T-4 air base before returning to a base in Palmyra,” the source added.
A Syrian military official who requested anonymity said Saturday that the shots were fired “during a meeting between Syrian and American officers” at a Syrian base in Palmyra.
However, a Pentagon official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the attack “took place in an area that the Syrian president does not have control over.”
Warnings
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers were “conducting a key engagement” in support of counterterrorism operations when the attack took place, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol”.
Trump called the incident an ISIS attack “against the United States and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, which is not fully controlled by them.”
He said the three other U.S. soldiers injured in the incident “are doing well.”
The official SANA news agency said the attack also injured two members of the Syrian security forces.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said Damascus “strongly condemns the terrorist attack.”
In an interview with state television on Saturday, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said there had been “advance warnings from the Internal Security Command to allied forces in the desert region.”
International coalition forces did not heed Syrian warnings about possible Daesh infiltration, he said.
ISIS seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during the Syrian civil war, before being territorially defeated in the country five years later.
However, its fighters still maintain a presence, particularly in the vast Syrian desert.
Last month, during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington, Damascus officially joined the US-led global coalition against ISIS.
US forces are deployed in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria as well as in Al-Tanf, near the border with Jordan.
