By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump attended a ceremony on Wednesday for three U.S. personnel killed in Syria by a suspected Islamic State attacker as they were returned to American soil in flag-draped caskets.
Trump, accompanied by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the “dignified transfer” of the bodies in the presence of their families.
Standing at the foot of an Air Force transport plane on a cold and blustery day, Trump, Hegseth and others saluted as one by one the caskets were carried off by white-gloved soldiers and loaded onto a waiting vehicle.
The two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the U.S. military.
The two Iowa National Guard soldiers killed in Syria were Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, 29, and Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, the Guard said in a statement on Monday. The interpreter was named as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, from Michigan.
Trump on Saturday called the incident terrible, vowed retaliation and referred to the three that were slain as “great patriots.”
Three U.S. soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
A U.S.-led coalition has carried out air strikes and ground operations in Syria targeting Islamic State suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces.
U.S. presidents, vice presidents and dignitaries regularly attend the solemn transfer ceremonies at Dover – home of the largest U.S. military mortuary – during times of war or conflict that result in the deaths of U.S. troops.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason. Additional reporting by Tim Reid. Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)
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