A convoy of American and Syrian soldiers came under fire while patrolling a town in the country, leaving several wounded.
The shooting took place near Palmyra, state-run SANA news agency reported. It said that two members of Syria’s security force and several U.S. service members were wounded and rushed by helicopters to the Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
SANA said the attacker was killed, without providing further details.
A U.S. defense official told The Associated Press that they are aware of the reports and did not have any information to provide immediately.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to speak to the media.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least three people were wounded in the shooting. It added that the attacker was a member of the Syrian security force.
The U.S. has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
U.S. military convoy drives near the town of Qamishli, north Syria, Saturday, Oct. 26. 2019
As of June, the US had around 1,500 troops left on the ground in the country following a series of withdrawals
U.S. troops have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria including Al-Tanf garrison in the central province of Homs to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against IS.
As of June, the US had around 1,500 troops left on the ground in the country following a series of withdrawals. The number is expected to drop again by the end of the year.
The shooting on Saturday comes just over a year after former President Bashar Al-Assad fled office and departed the country, he is said to be living in Moscow, Russia.
Syrians stormed al-Assad’s presidential palace in Damascus last December as rebels declared that the country was ‘free’ from the ‘tyrant’.
A civil war erupted in 2011 with the Assad government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests. The war killed more than half a million people and displaced millions.
Tens of thousands of people are still missing, many after disappearing into the former government’s prisons, with families awaiting justice for Assad-era atrocities.
President Donald Trump met with the country’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, earlier this year in a trip to Saudi Arabia before welcoming him to the White House last month.
The sitdown in May was the first encounter between American and Syrian leaders in 25 years.
The shooting on Saturday comes just over a year after former President Bashar Al-Assad, seen here, fled office and departed the country
Trump, left, shakes hands with Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa, at the White House in Washington on November 10
Sharaa, 43, is a former al-Qaeda commander who until recently was sanctioned by Washington DC as a ‘specially designated global terrorist.’
The Saudi-born leader joined the terror group in Iraq just before the US invasion in 2003. He was captured by American forces and imprisoned for five years until 2011.
An opponent of longtime Syrian president Assad, Sharaa launched an 11-day attack against his regime in November 2024, triggering the collapse of the government.
Assad fled to Russia, while Sharaa assumed power and was appointed officially on January 29.
Sharaa has since traveled the world trying to depict himself as a moderate leader who wants to unify his war-ravaged nation and end its decades-long international isolation.
He has described his wife, Latifa al-Droubi, 41, as a key support for him over the last decade.
Speaking with reporters, Trump praised Sharaa as a ‘strong leader’ and voiced confidence in him. ‘We’ll do everything we can to make Syria successful,’ he said.
But Trump also gave a nod to Sharaa’s controversial history. ‘We’ve all had rough pasts,’ he said.