Syrian authorities have arrested five people suspected of links to Saturday’s shooting in the central town of Palmyra that kil-led two US army soldiers and an American civilian interpreter, according to the Interior Ministry. The attacker targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, with Syrian officials describing him as a member of the country’s security forces suspected of sympathising with Islamic State. Several others were wounded in the attack, which marked the first incident to inflict US casualties since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad a year ago.

The Interior Ministry said security units in Palmyra carried out the arrests in coordination with “international coalition forces,” adding that the suspects were immediately referred for questioning. Officials revealed that the assailant had been assessed only days before the attack and flagged for possible extremist views, though a decision on his future role had been pending. Syria has been cooperating closely with the US-led coalition against Islamic State, including joint operations and a nationwide campaign last month that resulted in the arrest of more than 70 people accused of links to the group.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the attack by phone with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, who offered condolences and reaffirmed Damascus’s commitment to confronting Islamic State. The United States continues to station troops in northeastern Syria as part of a decade-long effort to combat the group, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2019. Syria’s current government, formed by former rebels who ousted Assad after a 13-year civil war, includes figures who broke from Al-Qaeda and later fought Islamic State, underscoring the complex security landscape in which the attack occurred.