Two US soldiers, American civilian interpreter killed in attack in Syria

Wall Street Journal/msn ^ | 12/13/2025 | Lara Seligman

[SaxxonWoods]

Two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed during an attack Saturday near the city of Palmyra, Syria, according to the Pentagon.

Three additional U.S. soldiers were wounded in the assault, the Pentagon added.

President Trump in a social-media post called it “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria.” He warned “there will be very serious retaliation,” adding that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al Qaeda and Islamist rebel commander, “is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

[frank ballenger]

Current Google answer to my search query of what is the mission for American military in Syria in 2025....

(excerpts)

Conducting operations with partner forces, such as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian Army’s Division 70, to target and eliminate remaining ISIS cells and prevent their resurgence. This includes intelligence gathering, aerial surveillance, and kinetic operations.

U.S. troops provide essential training and advisory support to local Syrian forces (including the SDF in the northeast and Division 70 at the Al-Tanf garrison) to build their capacity to maintain security independently.

Supporting broader U.S. foreign policy goals, including mediating a potential non-aggression security pact between the new Syrian government and Israel, which could involve a presence at a Damascus airbase to monitor a demilitarized zone.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The turd worlders have figured out that America is a shickenchit country after Biden and Alfalfa Harris and Schumer, Walzing Minnesota Matilda and King Hakeem the football Potatohead.

[No name given]

Unfortunately.

[montag813]

I don’t get why Trump is love with this shitbag terrorist Sharaa. I get his love affair with Qatar since they are rich. But why this Al Queda scumbag?

[SaxxonWoods]

Thanks.

[Zhang Fei]

[I don’t get why Trump is love with this shitbag terrorist Sharaa. I get his love affair with Qatar since they are rich. But why this Al Queda scumbag?]

---

Package deal. Sharaa is Qatar’s man in Syria.

[SaxxonWoods]

We have troops scattered all over the world and I don’t know if it’s a plus or a minus. It seems like a hangover from the Cold War and War on Terror thinking but does it even apply successfully now?

[Uncle Miltie]

I’m trying to come up with a good reason for us to be there and I am drawing a blank…

[McGruff]

A man who attacked Syrian and US military personnel in the central Syrian town of Palmyra on Saturday was a member of Syrian security forces, three local officials tell Reuters.

A Syrian interior ministry spokesperson tells Syrian television channel Al-Ikhbariya that the attacker did not have a leadership role in the security forces. He did not say whether the man was a junior member.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/man-who-attacked-us-troops-in-palmyra-was-member-of-syrian-security-forces/

Why are we still there?

[ScaniaBoy]

From https://tlgrm.eu/channels/@beholdisraelchannel

The man who just detonated himself next to a U.S.–Syrian patrol in Palmyra is photographed here, standing a few meters from Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Jolani), the new “President” of Syria.

https://televisor.tlgrm.dev/00b/-AIBACbMLFEAAAAAl0LOD1I6aFk.5QtrGybl8VH6GZHFdDTJ0QQ.AlEszCYAAQL4aT2wQrlSTkBrXfgBqx-IXRCtjWY/photo-x.jpg?hash=j08BhONBIJa0AO0FkhtHIw&ts=1765702506

[metmom]

Pete Hegseth on x about the incident. (This is what I voted for)

https://x.com/SecWar/status/1999882265355227392

Pete Hegseth reposted
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

@SecWar
“The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces.

Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”

[Equine1952]

12 days before Christmas, three families are getting a coffin. We have no friends there. Pull our people The Aliens movie was right. Nuke them from space IMO

[FLT-bird]

Why do we still have soldiers in Syria?

[AAABEST]

Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”

Hegseth is a kool guy and useful for taking the trash out of the military, but sometimes bis mouth is bigger than his brain.

- The guy reportedly blew himself up, he can't be hunted or killed.

- These deaths lie at the feet of his boss, Donald J. Trump who, despite campaign promises, not only keeps our troops in useless Mideast shitholes, but is adding more as this is typed. In fact, he's increased the US presence in Syria and is deploying hundreds more troops to GAZA, of all places.

- Here is the bomber, hanging with former ISIS murderer, now President of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

- Here is Donald J. Trump, welcoming his "young, attractive" new friend Ahmed Al-Sharaa into the Whitehouse, to normalize relations and promise more US troops to Syria.

Does Hegseth know what he's saying, or just run, mindless, canned responses on auto-pilot?

[Zhang Fei]

[Hegseth is a kool guy and useful for taking the trash out of the military, but sometimes bis mouth is bigger than his brain.

- The guy reportedly blew himself up, he can’t be hunted or killed.]

---

His family and tribe can certainly be butchered, which is the traditional way of establishing deterrence. The Fil-Am war saw entire villages massacred. Now, the US can’t do the deed, but if Sharaa does so, Uncle Sam can certainly tut tut, while in practice turning a blind eye. Trump is certainly unsqueamish about these things - he once pondered killing Afghanistan to win the war.

[jerod]

Sounds like an upper level meeting with opposition forces to form some kind of understanding... Why else would they be meeting the enemy with an interpreter? Bottom line... They were bushwhacked and somebody’s going to pay.

[Alberta's Child]

The MAGA movement in American politics is going to end over sh!t like this.

I didn’t vote for Donald Trump only to have Lindsey Graham dictating our foreign policy.

[DesertRhino]

Sickening. US Soldiers there in support of that ISIS terrorist government. Wasted.... those beautiful US soldiers lives were wasted.... squandered for noting of value and nothing to benefit America whatsoever. Three families devastated right before Christmas....

However much contempt you have for DC, it isn’t enough.

[DesertRhino]

“President Trump in a social-media post called it “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria.””

Guess meeting with the ISIS Syrian president in the Oval Office and Petraeus fellating him at the UN didn’t do any good?

Why in HELL were US soldiers there?