Syrian Security Guard Kills Three U.S. Citizens Near Palmyra, Raising IS Infiltration Concerns

A Syrian security guard carried out a shooting near Palmyra that killed three U.S. citizens, raising questions about IS infiltration and U.S. cooperation.

Attack near Palmyra

On Saturday in the Syrian desert near the historic city of Palmyra, a gunman opened fire during a lunch meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials. The attack killed two U.S. service members and one American civilian and wounded three others. It also wounded three members of the Syrian security forces who clashed with the gunman, according to interior ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba.

Background of the Attacker

The shooter had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months earlier. He was part of a new division formed in the desert region known as the Badiya, which hosts remnants of the Islamic State extremist group. He was recently reassigned amid suspicions that he might be affiliated with the Islamic State, according to the same spokesperson.

Security Forces Response

Al-Baba said the internal security forces’ leadership had become suspicious of an infiltrator leaking information to IS and began evaluating all members in the Badiya area. The probe raised suspicions last week about the man who later carried out the attack, but officials decided to continue monitoring him for a few days to determine if he was an active IS member and to identify the network he was communicating with, if so. He was not named.

Precautionary Reassignment

As a precautionary measure, the man was reassigned to guard equipment at a base farther from the leadership and from any patrols by U.S.-led coalition forces. On Saturday, he stormed the lunch meeting, opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards, and was shot and killed at the scene, al-Baba said.

Wide-Ranging Sweeps

Al-Baba acknowledged the incident as a “major security breach” but said that in the year since Assad’s fall there have been many more successes than failures by security forces. In the wake of the shooting, he said, the army and internal security forces “launched wide-ranging sweeps of the Badiya region” and broke up a number of alleged IS cells. The interior ministry later stated that five suspects were arrested in the city of Palmyra.

U.S. Cooperation Context

The shooting comes at a delicate time as the U.S. military expands its cooperation with Syrian security forces. The U.S. has had forces on the ground in Syria for over a decade, with about 900 troops present today, fighting IS. Before Assad’s ouster, Washington had no diplomatic relations with Damascus and the U.S. military did not work directly with the Syrian army; its main partner was the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Diplomatic Shifts

Ties have warmed between the administrations of U.S. President Donald Trump and Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that was once listed by Washington as a terrorist organization. In November, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian president to visit Washington since the country’s independence in 1946. During his visit, Syria announced its entry into the global coalition against the Islamic State, joining 89 other countries.

Criticism and Reassurance

Critics of the new Syrian authorities have pointed to Saturday’s attack as evidence that the security forces are deeply infiltrated by IS and are an unreliable partner. Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, said that is unfair. “It’s a fact that even those who carry the most fundamentalist of beliefs, the most conservative within the fighters, have a vehement hatred of ISIS,” he said. “The coalition between the United States and Syria is the most important partnership in the global fight against ISIS because only Syria has the expertise and experience to deal with this,” he added.

Aftermath

Later Sunday, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported that four members of the internal security forces were killed and a fifth was wounded after gunmen opened fire on them in the city of Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province. It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were or whether the attack was linked to Saturday’s shooting.

Key Takeaways

• A Syrian security guard carried out a shooting near Palmyra that killed three U.S. citizens.
• The attacker had been reassigned amid IS infiltration suspicions and was monitored before the attack.
• The incident prompted wide-ranging sweeps and highlighted tensions in U.S.-Syrian security cooperation.