Damascus
\nSyria\u2019s interior ministry on Sunday said the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism.
\nTwo US troops and a civilian interpreter died in what the Syrian government described as a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d on Saturday, while Washington said it had been carried out by a Daesh militant who was then killed.
\nThe Syrian authorities \u201chad decided to fire him\u201d from the security forces before the attack for holding extremist ideas and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told state television.
\nA Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that \u201c11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack\u201d.
\nThe official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces \u201cfor more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra\u201d.
\nPalmyra, home to Unesco-listed ancient ruins, was controlled by Daesh at the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
\nThe incident is the first of its kind reported since the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year.
\nUS President Donald Trump vowed \u201cvery serious retaliation\u201d following Saturday\u2019s attack.
\nA Syrian defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that prior to the attack, US forces had \u201carrived by land from the direction of the Al-Tanf military base\u201d in southeastern Syria, near the border with Jordan.
\n\u201cThe joint Syrian-American delegation first toured the city of Palmyra, then proceeded to the T-4 airbase before returning to a base in Palmyra\u201d, the source added.
\nA Syrian military official who requested anonymity said on Saturday that the shots were fired \u201cduring a meeting between Syrian and American officers\u201d at a Syrian base in Palmyra.
\nHowever, a Pentagon official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the attack \u201ctook place in an area where the Syrian president does not have control.\u201d
\nWarnings
\nPentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers \u201cwere conducting a key leader engagement\u201d in support of counterterrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted \u201ca joint US-Syrian government patrol\u201d.
\nTrump called the incident a Daesh attack \u201cagainst the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them\u201d.
\nHe said the three other US troops injured in the incident were \u201cdoing well\u201d.
\nThe official SANA news agency said the attack also wounded two members of the Syrian security forces.
\nSyrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said Damascus \u201cstrongly condemns the terrorist attack\u201d.
\nIn an interview on state television on Saturday, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said there had been \u201cprior warnings from the internal security command to allied forces in the desert region\u201d.
\nThe international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible Daesh infiltration into consideration, he said.
\nDaesh seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during Syria\u2019s civil war, before being territorially defeated in the country five years later.
\nIts fighters still maintain a presence, however, particularly in Syria\u2019s vast desert.
\nLast month, during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa\u2019s historic visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the US-led global coalition against Daesh.
\nUS forces are deployed in Syria\u2019s Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at Al-Tanf near the border with Jordan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Damascus Syria\u2019s interior ministry on Sunday said the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism. Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in what the Syrian government described as a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-520060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n