“President Trump told the world that the United States would retaliate for the killing of our heroes by ISIS in Syria, and he is delivering on that promise,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese supported the action.
“These strikes are a direct response to ISIS attacks on US defence personnel and the actions of the United States government are timely, swift and decisive, and we support those actions,” Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra on Saturday.
“ISIS has caused untold suffering around the world, but directly with the actions that they’ve taken, but also through their evil ideology that they spread. And last Sunday was an ISIS inspired attack here in Australia, and that evil ideology represents something that should have no place in any consideration of humanity and who we are as global citizens, let alone as Australians.”
This week Trump met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before joining top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honouring US service members killed in action.
The guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the US Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a US civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.
The shooting nearly a week ago near the historic city of Palmyra also wounded three other US troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and was recently reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba has said.
The man stormed a meeting between US and Syrian security officials who were lunching together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.
AP
