In wake of Syria attack that killed two US soldiers, Trump faces complicated ally and echoes of Afghanistan

(CNN) — When an attacker killed two US service members and a civilian interpreter in Syria over the weekend, President Donald Trump vowed “very serious” retribution against those responsible, and officials were quick to describe the assailant as a “lone gunman” who was a member of ISIS.

However, a spokesman for Syria’s Ministry of Interior Affairs acknowledged Saturday that the attacker had been part of the country’s Internal Security service. Trump, as well as Syrian leaders, were quick to distance the gunman from the country’s fledgling government that has received strong American support in recent months.

Days later, ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the attack and multiple sources familiar with the investigation, including US and Syrian officials, tell CNN that the shooter’s ties to the terror group are less clear-cut than both governments have publicly claimed.

But the attack demonstrates how the new regime in Syria continues to grapple with extremist elements within the country, including among members of its own army, the sources said. It’s also an echo of the so-called green-on-blue attacks that US forces suffered in Afghanistan – where troops worked alongside local forces but took casualties as that nation attempted to forge a new military.

Initial indications suggested the shooter had affiliations with the Syrian security forces at some point, according to a US official. Whether those affiliations were in the past or present remains unclear, but efforts are underway to better understand the individual’s background and the circumstances of the attack itself.

Hundreds of American troops remain in Syria as part of an ongoing mission to root out ISIS. The slain soldiers, Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, were deployed as part of a rotation of the Iowa National Guard.

Trump will be meeting with the families of the two killed soldiers on Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base as they receive the remains of the service members, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

The mission that those soldiers were performing has brought the Trump administration together with the new Syrian regime, which took control of the country after toppling Bashar al-Assad’s government last year.

US officials have heavily invested in supporting Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa who previously led a US-designated terrorist group and until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head but who has attempted to transition what had been a hodgepodge resistance force into a governing authority in the country.

“The [Syrian] army is comprised of fighters from the Revolution and includes folks of all background, some with extremist ties,” one former US official who recently traveled to Damascus and met with senior Syrian officials said. “They are trying to transition but as the attack the other day highlighted there are still extremist elements within the country.”

US and Syrian officials have privately echoed that sentiment, noting that Syria’s forces are currently made up of an array of fighters from different backgrounds and with varying extremist views and affiliations.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman, Nour Eddin al-Baba, told Syrian state television that the attacker had been flagged for a security review and that Syrian officials had alerted the US-led international coalition against ISIS in Syria about preliminary information “indicating a possible breach or expected ISIS attacks.”

“However, (coalition) forces did not take the Syrian warnings into account,” al-Baba added.

Yet the source with knowledge of the current US-Syrian cooperation efforts questioned how much insight the new government likely had into the gunman’s extremist tendencies.

“How could they know when those tendencies are mainstream among the security forces called the ‘Syrian army,’” the source said.

Syrian officials have sought to reinforce the government’s partnership with the US after the attack, with authorities arresting five suspects in connection with the ambush, according to country’s Interior Ministry.

Still, the recent shooting is reminiscent of a major challenge US and NATO forces grappled with toward the end of another conflict in the Middle East: The war in Afghanistan. So-called “green-on-blue attacks,” in which rogue Afghan security forces killed servicemembers from the NATO-led military coalition, increased significantly in the waning years of that war during a period when Afghanistan was desperately trying to recruit and train a growing military force.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, neither Syrian nor American officials appear inclined to acknowledge that the threat to American troops currently operating inside the country extends well beyond ISIS itself.

“No one wants to go near the question of just how many ‘potential lone gunmen’ there are embedded in the hodgepodge of jihadists that make up the Syrian army,” a source with direct knowledge of the security challenges facing Syria’s new government told CNN.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment about the attacker’s connections to the Syrian security forces.

The Trump administration has made clear that it backs al-Sharaa as Syria’s new leader, painting his extremist ties as a thing of the past and emphasizing his partnership in targeting ISIS in the region.

In November, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House. “He’s a very strong leader,” President Donald Trump told reporters at the time, calling al-Sharaa “a tough guy from a tough place.” The visit came after the US partially lifted sanctions on Syria, marking a major shift in relations between the two countries.

Trump voiced similar support for al-Sharaa after the Saturday attack on US forces, noting the US’ cooperation with Syrian forces. “Syria, by the way, was fighting along with us,” Trump said, adding that Syria’s new president is “devastated by what happened.”

But the Trump administration’s concerted push to distinguish the lone gunman as a member of ISIS has been viewed by some as an effort to deflect from the complicated picture of Syrian security force recruiting.

“It would be devastating to the US side to admit someone in Sharaa’s forces did this,” the source with knowledge of Syria’s current security situation said.

Navigating those difficult realities poses a challenge for both the US and Syria’s new government during the ongoing transitional period in which the country’s security services are undergoing a complete overhaul.

In the interim, Sharaa’s government is relying on a mix of fighters – both Syrian and foreign-born – to fill the gap.

The recent deadly attack comes a month after Syria joined the US-led coalition against ISIS, which was formed in 2014. The coalition has conducted military operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq with the participation of multiple countries.

US troops have operated for years across a range of locations in Syria as they’ve trained Syrian partner forces as part of that wider fight against ISIS. American personnel have previously come under attack in the country as well, and Saturday’s incident is the deadliest since a 2019 blast that struck a patrol, killing two US service members and two US civilians.

But US and Syrian officials are currently inclined to tamp down on any lingering concerns about the threat to US forces posed by members of those partner forces in Syria while the new government continues its transition, sources said.

Acknowledging that reality means the current US policy would have to be reviewed, the source familiar with the security situation said, noting that, instead, Trump officials are doubling down on the narrative that the recent attack was carried out by ISIS.

At the same time that there remain security concerns for US forces, al-Sharaa is taking a risk in partnering with US and coalition troops to counter ISIS within Syria, according to a recent report from the Middle East Institute.

“This decision carries considerable risk for Sharaa, from both security and internal political perspectives, and appears to reflect a commitment to collaborate and prioritize ties with US and Western institutions in pursuing shared security objectives. Domestic security remains a significant challenge for the fledgling government,” the report, written by a group of experts that included former US Central Command chief Ret. Gen. Joseph L. Votel, said.

The report also notes that “the continued presence of foreign fighters within the ranks of the Syrian Army has been a cause for international concern,” a reflection of how the new government’s ongoing transition is impacting its efforts to train security forces.

“For now, between 2,000 and 3,000 non-Syrian fighters have been integrated into a dedicated defense ministry unit, the 84th Division — with a tacit US green light,” it said.

CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis and Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.