US, Syrian forces come under fire during patrol in Palmyra: report

U.S. and Syrian forces from the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria have come under fire Saturday, reports said.

Two local Syrian officials told Reuters that the convoy was targeted while on patrol in the central town of Palmyra and that there were casualties.

The Department of War told Fox News Digital that “we are aware of reports,” but added that it had “nothing additional to provide at this time.”

“The United States, CIA and military forces are reportedly deeply involved in securing and stabilizing the situation in Syria,” Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, recently told Fox News Digital.

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U.S. forces patrol in Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli in the Hasakeh province, on Jan. 9, 2025.  (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)

As of June, the U.S. had about 1,500 troops left in Syria following withdrawals and consolidations ordered by the Pentagon, and that number was expected to drop to just several hundred by the end of this year, according to Fox News Chief National Security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.

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U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost on May 25, 2021, in northeastern Syria.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

Griffin reported that the U.S. had eight bases in Syria to keep an eye on ISIS since the U.S. military went in to prevent the terrorist group from setting up a caliphate in 2014, although three of those bases have since been closed down or turned over to the Syrian Democratic Forces.

On Monday, tens of thousands of Syrians flooded the streets of Damascus to mark the first anniversary of the Assad regime’s collapse.

U.S. Army soldiers stand near an armored military vehicle on the outskirts of Rumaylan in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, bordering Turkey, on March 27, 2023.  (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)

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Those celebrations came a year after former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the capital as rebel forces swept through the country in a lightning offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule and opened a new chapter in Syrian history.

Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.