Syrian and American security forces came under fire near the city of Palmyra in central Syria during a joint patrol. Syria's official state news agency, SANA, reported on Saturday, citing a security source, that the incident resulted in injuries to two Syrian security personnel and several American soldiers. The attacker was killed. So far, there is no additional information about the motives or circumstances of the incident. The report noted that traffic on the international highway between Deir ez-Zor and Damascus was temporarily halted. There was intense air activity in the area's skies, and American helicopters intervened to evacuate the injured to the Tanf military base following the shooting. Earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that joint Syrian and American forces had blocked the Deir ez-Zor-Damascus highway and completely prevented traffic, citing an urgent security measure. The observatory said this came in the wake of an attack on an American delegation during its tour in Palmyra, central Syria, with reports of injuries among security forces and Americans, some of them critical. The Observatory noted the delegation's hasty departure from the area towards the Tanf base amid a wide-scale security alert and tightened measures in the vicinity. According to the Observatory, the skies over Palmyra witnessed intensive low-altitude flights of American warplanes, including the deployment of thermal flares, coinciding with a high state of alert among Syrian government forces in the region and the sound of gunfire.
