Syria attacker who killed US troops was a ‘recent army recruit’: What to know about suspect

The shooting near Palmyra, Syria, killed two US service members and one civilian.

New details released by Syrian officials suggest that the gunman behind a deadly attack on US personnel in Syria was not an external infiltrator. He was a recently recruited member of the country’s internal security forces, according to reports by the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press.​

According to Syrian officials, internal security leaders had recently grown concerned that someone within the Badiya division might be leaking information to Islamic State. (Image for representational purposes. (Unsplash))

The shooting took place in Syria’s central desert near the historic city of Palmyra, killing two US service members and one American civilian, and wounding several others.

The incident comes at a sensitive moment, as Washington and Damascus deepen cooperation against the Islamic State group.​

What officials said

Syria’s interior ministry said the attacker had joined the internal security forces around two months before the shooting, serving as a base security guard.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba said the man was part of a new desert-based security division formed to combat Islamic State remnants in the vast Badiya region, an area where extremist cells have remained active.​

Officials have not publicly named the attacker. According to Syrian officials, internal security leaders had recently grown concerned that someone within the Badiya division might be leaking information to Islamic State.

As part of that probe, the attacker himself came under suspicion days before the shooting, al-Baba said. Rather than immediately detaining him, authorities chose to continue monitoring the man in hopes of determining whether he was an active IS member and identifying any broader network he might be connected to.

As a precaution, he was reassigned to a less sensitive post, officials said.​

How the attack unfolded

Syrian officials said the gunman ambushed a US-Syrian leader meeting or patrol, where he was shot and killed at the scene by partner forces. In addition to the three Americans killed, three US personnel and two Syrian soldiers were wounded, according to the interior ministry.​

Al-Baba described the incident as a “major security breach,” while stressing that security forces had achieved “many more successes than failures” since the fall of former president Bashar Assad.

Officials have linked the breach to the speed at which Syria’s security forces were rebuilt following Bashar al-Assad’s sudden ouster last year. Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the attacker acted alone or had accomplices.