ISIS Kills 2 US Soldiers, Interpreter in Syria

It comes at an awkward time for Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s new president, as he looks to rekindle ties with the US after years of hostilities.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, the mission was part of an “American strategy to strengthen its presence and foothold in the Syrian desert”.

A year ago, Syria was a pariah state under Assad’s rule, but the rise of Mr Sharaa’s Islamist rebels to power has led to a cautious rapprochement.

A former jihadist who styled himself on Osama Bin Laden, Mr Sharaa was listed as a “specially designated global terrorist” until last month, when he was welcomed by Mr Trump at the White House in an extraordinary meeting.

The pair, who had previously met in May in Saudi Arabia, appeared to have a warm relationship, with Mr Trump praising the Syrian leader for being a “tough guy”, spraying him with perfume and joking about how many wives he has.

During the meeting, Damascus formally joined a US-led global coalition against IS.

IS was defeated in Syria in 2019 but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in the country. The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.

US troops, which have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria – including Al-Tanf in the central province of Homs – to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against IS, have been targeted in the past.

One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2019 in the northern town of Manbij when a blast killed two US service members and two American civilians, as well as others from Syria, while conducting a patrol.