Gunmen kill four Syrian security personnel in Idlib

Gunmen shot dead four members of Syria’s security forces in the country’s northwest on Sunday, the interior ministry and state media said.

“Four members of the interior ministry’s road security department were killed, and a fifth was wounded, when their patrol was targeted while on duty on the Maaret al-Numan road” in Idlib province, the ministry said in a statement.

The official SANA news agency reported that gunmen had opened fire on the personnel.

Neither identified the attackers.

The Idlib region was a bastion of armed groups before Syrian opposition forces overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December in a lightning offensive.

The attack comes a day after an assault on a joint US-Syrian patrol in Palmyra, central Syria killed two American soldiers and a translator.

US President Donald Trump called the incident “an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria,” and vowed “very serious retaliation.”

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani called the Saturday attack “a new challenge in the fight against terrorism.”

Syria’s new authorities are trying to stabilize the country after over a decade of civil war.

Following Saturday’s attack, authorities launched an operation against ISIS group cells across the Homs province, where Palmyra is located.

A US-led coalition has at times carried out strikes on the Idlib region, usually saying it is targeting ISIS officials.