Overview
- Two Iowa National Guard soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed and three troops wounded in last week’s attack in Palmyra; the attacker was shot dead at the scene.
- The shooter served in Syria’s security forces and had been flagged for ISIS sympathies, and Syrian authorities say they have detained nearly a dozen personnel for questioning and had warned of a possible attack.
- Senior U.S. officials indicate a large bombing campaign is unlikely, with likely options limited to raids on high-value targets or drone strikes.
- Roughly 1,000 U.S. troops remain in Syria as the Pentagon consolidates bases, even as lawmakers and analysts question the mission’s end state and the risks to deployed forces.
- U.S. commanders cite detention camps holding about 9,000 former ISIS fighters and some 38,000 family members as a major vulnerability, while recent attacks and foiled plots abroad underscore ISIS’s decentralized threat.