Dec 19 (Reuters) – The Islamic State group said the killing of U.S. Pentagon personnel in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra was a “blow” to U.S. forces and Syrian armed factions opposed to it, in its first public comment on the incident.
Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday when an attacker targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces in Palmyra before being shot dead, the U.S. military said. Three U.S. soldiers were wounded.
In an article published on its Telegram channel on Thursday, Islamic State accused the United States and its Syrian-based allies of forming a single front against it. It used religious language to frame the assault as a decisive moment intended to dispel doubt among its supporters, but did not explicitly claim responsibility.
U.S. President Donald Trump called the incident “terrible” and vowed retaliation.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday it had arrested five people suspected of links to the shooting, describing the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathising with Islamic State.
The ministry said security units in Palmyra carried out the arrests in coordination with international coalition forces.
Syria has been cooperating with a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. The United States has troops stationed in northeastern Syria as part of a decade-long campaign against the group, which controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq from 2014 to 2019.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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