President Donald Trump attended the repatriation ceremony for the bodies of two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter who were killed in an attack by Syrian soldiers believed to be Islamic State (IS) extremists on the 17th.The president attended the ceremony held at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware that afternoon, saluting each casket carrying the bodies of the fallen soldiers as they were unloaded from an Air Force C-17 transport plane and transported to vehicles.
The ceremony was held in a solemn atmosphere, with cell phone use prohibited, and the president wore a somber expression throughout.
This is the first time since the inauguration of his second term (January 20th) that President Trump has attended a ceremony to return the bodies of American soldiers killed in overseas operations. In addition to President Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kaine also attended the event.
Among White House staff members, the attendance of Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles, who sparked controversy the day before with a magazine interview harshly criticizing President Trump and others, was noteworthy.
Earlier, on the 13th, a surprise attack on US and Syrian government forces conducting a field reconnaissance in Palmyra, central Syria, killed three soldiers: Sergeants William Howard and Edgar Torres-Tovar of the Iowa National Guard, and American interpreter Ayad Mansour Saqat.
The Syrian government announced that the attacker, who was killed in the fighting, was a member of the Syrian army but committed the crime just before being forcibly discharged due to suspected Islamic extremist ideology.
President Trump declared that the attack was not carried out by the Syrian government, but by ISIS (the US military’s term for the Islamic State), and that there would be strong retaliation.