After four Americans killed, Trump’s Syria plan prompts questions
- Suicide bombing that killed at least 16 people complicates US withdrawal plan from Syria
A suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State militants killed at least 16 people, including two US service members and two American civilians, in northern Syria on Wednesday, just a month after President Donald Trump declared that IS had been defeated and he was pulling out US forces.
The attack in the strategic northeastern town of Manbij highlighted the threat posed by Islamic State despite Trump’s claims. It could also complicate what had already become a messy withdrawal plan, with the president’s senior advisers disagreeing with the decision and then offering an evolving timetable for the removal of the approximately 2,000 US troops.
The attack, which also wounded three US troops, was the deadliest assault on US troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.
The dead included a number of fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces, who have fought alongside the Americans against Islamic State, according to officials and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
According to a US official, one of the US civilians killed was an intelligence specialist working for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The other was an interpreter, who was a contractor.