Two U.S. Army soldiers and one U.S. civilian interpreter were killed while three service members were left wounded in an ambush attack on Saturday in Palmyra, Syria, U.S. officials confirmed. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, confirmed the news on X Saturday morning, saying the two soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” and that their mission in the city was “in support of on-going counter-ISIS / counter-terrorism operations in the region. In a press release, U.S. Central Command said the attack was carried out by a “lone ISIS gunman” who was “engaged and killed.” President Donald Trump on Saturday said that in light of the attack, which he framed as an assault on both the U.S. and Syria, there will be “serious retaliation.” The president also said the soldiers were killed “in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them.” A Pentagon official said that Saturday’s attack took place in an area where current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa does not have control. As of April, the U.S. had about 2,000 troops stationed in Syria involved in advisory, training, and counter-ISIS missions. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that the person who perpetrated the attack had been killed. “Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” Hegseth added in his post on X. The Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces also weighed in on X, saying, “We express our regret for the injury of a number of public security personnel and U.S. soldiers following their exposure to gunfire in the Syrian Badia while performing their duties,” according to a translation of the post from Arabic. The U.S. first deployed to Syria during the Obama administration as part of the Operation Inherent Resolve coalition to fight ISIS. After ISIS lost almost all territorial control by 2019, the U.S. did not fully withdraw but kept a smaller contingent of troops in the Middle Eastern nation to prevent the group’s resurgence. In 2024, the longstanding government of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fell, and a new transitional Syrian government formed with U.S. encouragement. Parnell, in his statement, said the soldiers’ names, as well as identifying information about their units, are being withheld for 24 hours after the next of kin notification. He also said an active investigation is underway.

A Luxembourg court on Thursday imprisoned a 23-year-old Swedish man for plotting a terrorist attack on the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, with six years suspended. The ruling caps a yearslong investigation that uncovered a sophisticated bomb-making operation and ties to international extremist networks. The defendant, named as Alexander H., was found guilty of participating in a terrorist organization, as well as multiple violations of European firearms and explosives laws, local newspaper Luxemburger Wort reported. Assistant Prosecutor David Lentz had sought a 12-year sentence in July, arguing that only the action by Luxembourg’s police and intelligence services helped prevent mass casualties. The man was arrested in February 2020 after Luxembourgish authorities uncovered a professionally equipped bomb workshop in the basement of his father’s home in Strassen, central Luxembourg. Investigators found TATP, nitroglycerine, a functional pipe bomb and a parcel bomb addressed to a Swedish film company. A French explosives expert told the court he had never seen a more advanced setup in a terrorism case. According to the court, the defendant — then aged 18 — had spent months preparing attacks in Sweden and the Netherlands, including a planned mass-casualty assault on the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest, which was later canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Investigators discovered a Google document titled “Fun time for Eurovision 2020 — For a better and less over-accepting future,” co-authored with an alleged Dutch accomplice, outlining plans to poison attendees with cyanide or ricin, release chlorine gas, or disperse chemicals through ventilation systems or custom-built rockets, national TV channel RTL reported in July. Police later confirmed the seizure of chlorine-production materials and rocket prototypes. The pair also explored ways to infiltrate security teams, block emergency exits and conduct secondary attacks, including a planned strike on an oil depot in Nacka, Sweden, for which the defendant had already mapped weak points in the site’s perimeter fence. Dutch police questioned but did not arrest the alleged accomplice. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rotterdam said that the man did not actually intend to carry out an attack, Dutch outlet Het Parool reported Thursday. According to authorities, the man’s plans were influenced by his involvement in extremist networks such as The Base, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group, Swedish outlet SVT reported in August. The suspended portion of the man’s prison sentence is contingent on his completing a five-year deradicalization program and submitting progress reports to prosecutors every six months. Failure to comply would reinstate the full prison term. The man and the prosecutor now have 40 days to appeal.

Don’t focus so much on Ukraine that you miss the severe threats to European security brewing in Libya. That’s the message Italy and Greece are trying to deliver to their EU and NATO allies, but without much success. Migrant flows from Libya are spiking again, at a time Rome is increasingly concerned about Russia’s growing influence in the unstable North African nation, wielded through arms supplies and a potential new naval base in the northeastern port of Tobruk. Athens has also sent two warships to conduct patrols off Libya in response to the migration surge and its strategic concerns that its archrival, Turkey, is working with the Libyans to carve up the Mediterranean into maritime zones for energy exploration. The zones claim waters just south of the Greek island of Crete, while Athens deems them illegal under international maritime law. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has described Libya as “an emergency that Europe must address together,” but a European attempt to make some diplomatic headway last week degenerated into farce. EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, accompanied by ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta, was declared “persona non grata” in Benghazi, the territory of the eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar. Accused of unspecified “violations,” the delegation was ordered to leave. “Russia’s role in Libya continues to expand, using it as the central node in its African strategy,” warned one EU diplomat who follows the dossier closely. The diplomat added that a politically connected smuggling network in Libya was supporting Russia’s strategic efforts, helping Moscow to circumvent sanctions and to weaponize migration. Italy and Greece know, however, that tackling a problem as complex as Libya — a country more than three times the size of Spain — will require support from big allies such as the U.S. and France. So far, however, the response from those allies has been underwhelming.    MIGRATION AGAIN TOPS THE AGENDA The Greek government announced tough new migration rules on Wednesday as it struggles to cope with a surge in arrivals from Libya on Crete at the height of the tourist season. “An emergency situation requires emergency measures and therefore the Greek government has taken the decision to inform the European Commission that … it is proceeding to suspend the processing of asylum applications, initially for three months, for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers. Some 9,000 people have arrived in Crete from Libya since the start of the year, most of them in recent weeks, already almost double the number for the whole of 2024. Some 9,000 people have arrived in Crete from Libya since the start of the year, most of them in recent weeks, already almost double the number for the whole of 2024. | Yannis Kolesidis/EPA In late June Greece deployed two warships in a bid to curb the recent surge of migrant arrivals. Senior government officials doubted their effectiveness, however, warning that naval patrols may encourage migrants to pitch themselves into the water to seek rescue. Sure enough, in the last week alone over 2,000 migrants came ashore in Crete. The Greek government is also taking criticism from both the opposition and its own officials for having abandoned the Libya file in recent years. Overall there has been a 7 percent rise in irregular crossings in the central Mediterranean in the first part of the year, almost entirely from Libya, compared to an overall 20 percent drop on all the other main routes. The Greek crackdown has also triggered fears in Italy that more migrants will be pushed into Italian waters. “We are concerned about the situation in Libya and the recent increase in irregular departures,” a European Commission spokesperson said before last week’s EU visit to the country. Being concerned is one thing, finding a solution quite another. Diplomats described last week’s diplomatic mission as an attempt to determine what solutions could be feasible. EU cash, after all, would likely play some role. The EU struck a highly controversial deal with Tunisia in 2023 in which it paid the authorities to stem migrations, but diplomats doubt such a model could be replicated in a country as destabilized by rival militias as Libya. RUSSIANS AT THE GATE A recent display of Russian weapons in Benghazi during a military parade showed the Kremlin’s growing proximity to Haftar.   Russia wants a stronghold in the Mediterranean, especially after the new authorities in Syria terminated Moscow’s lease at the Port of Tartus after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Italy’s Tajani issues regular warnings that Libya is the most likely destination for a replacement naval base. According to a report by the Agenzia Nova news agency, Moscow also wants to install missile systems at a military base in Sebha in southern Libya, which is controlled by Haftar, and to point the rockets at Europe.  Many analysts and diplomats are skeptical that Moscow is already at the stage of pointing rockets at Europe from Libya. But even without the missiles, Russia can already use a handful of military bases in Libya for logistics, “which theoretically could hit Europe,” said Arturo Varvelli, a senior policy fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations. So far, Russia has mainly used Libyan bases to run its operations in the rest of Africa, operating mainly through the Africa Corps, backed by Russia’s defense ministry. The Greek government announced tough new migration rules on Wednesday as it struggles to cope with a surge in arrivals from Libya on Crete at the height of the tourist season. | Yannis Kolesidis/EPA There are also growing fears among southern European officials that Russia could soon be able to harness migration from Libya in a rerun of the hybrid war it launched on the EU’s eastern front, when it forced Middle Eastern refugees over the Belarusian border into Poland. Still, not everything is going Russia’s way. One of the diplomats said the costs of the war in Ukraine were depriving the Africa Corps of the funding it needed to pay Libyan militias, creating tensions with its proxies and Haftar. “I don’t see the Russians taking over” the migrant smuggling business, said Karim Mezran, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, but “I see the Russians telling the people: Now I’m the new ruler and you just follow my orders.”  A QUEST FOR ALLIES Despite the gravity of these threats from Libya, Italy and Greece are struggling to convince their allies to step up. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni discussed Libya with French President Emmanuel Macron at a three-hour meeting in Rome on June 4. Libya “is of course a topic of key relevance for both Italy and France,” said an Italian official with direct knowledge of the talks between Paris and Rome, stressing “common concerns, especially on security — as regards also Russia’s increasing presence there — and migration.” The Italian official, however, acknowledged that there are “nuances” between the two countries’ positions “on the possible political solutions.” Libya is increasingly being added to the agenda of more diplomatic talking shops, but in practical terms little is happening. While Italy desperately wants buy-in from military heavyweight France, the subject simply isn’t as vital to Paris as it is to Rome, and even exposes France’s recent failures in Mali and Niger. “For Italy, the question of Libya is more central in the short term than for France,” said Virginie Collombier, a professor at Luiss University in Rome and an expert on Libya. “Politically, the French government has little interest in crying wolf on Russia because it highlights the failures of the French government,” she said, noting that France has gradually withdrawn from African countries in the Sahel region while Russia has upped its presence. And with the U.S. increasingly looking to the Pacific, there is scant hope that Washington will invest much political capital in stabilizing the country. Most tellingly, the most recent NATO declaration, signed June 25 in The Hague, doesn’t even mention Africa. “No one wanted divisive issues [included] as NATO now has a very minimalist agenda,” said Alessandro Marrone, head of the defense, security and space program at the Rome-based Istituto Affari Internazionali think tank.  That’s a bitter pill for the Italians. Rome has “now to face this reality,” Marrone added. Laura Kayali contributed reporting.

LONDON — Iran’s attempts to murder and kidnap people on U.K. soil should be treated as attacks against Britain, the government has been warned. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) — tasked with oversight of Britain’s intelligence agencies and which has access to top-level classified briefings — on Thursday published its long-awaited report into the threat Iran poses to Britain. It warned that the Islamic republic has become a “full spectrum” threat across assassinations, espionage, cyber-attacks and nuclear weapons. It lambasts the previous Conservative government’s policy on Iran for being too focused on “crisis management” over Iran’s nuclear program, to the exclusion of the threats to those who live in Britain. The inquiry — which concluded before the October 2023 attacks by Hamas in Israel — was delayed by last summer’s general election. But Kevan Jones, the ISC chair, told POLITICO the events in the following months have shown that the threat from Tehran “is still there, it’s live.” Officials told the committee in 2023 that while China and Russia are “Premier League” threats to Britain, Iran was “top of the Championship,” with the two other world powers running hundreds of thousands of intelligence officers compared to Iran’s tens of thousands.  One intelligence official added: “What Iran has, is a risk appetite which is very ‘pokey’ indeed.” ATTACKS ON BRITISH SOIL Between 2022 and 2024 there are believed to have been at least 20 Iranian-backed plots on British soil, often involving attempts to either kill or kidnap Iranian dissidents or critics of the state who have made the U.K. their home. Iran often uses proxies such as British-based criminals to carry out these attacks. The ISC was told by government counter-terrorism officials that the attack on individuals in the U.K. is now “the greatest level of threat we currently face from Iran,” with the report noting that this risk has seen a “stark” rise since 2016, when British intelligence deemed that Iran would only look to do this in “extreme circumstances.” Since the committee took evidence, two Romanians have been charged after an Iranian journalist was stabbed outside his home in London. Separately, three Iranian men have appeared in court charged with plotting violence against journalists under instruction from Iran’s intelligence agencies. Jeremy Wright, the committee’s deputy chair, told POLITICO that although Iran does not view these as direct attacks on Britain “the U.K. government needs to make it clear to the Iranians, that is exactly how we will regard it.” “People are entitled to walk safely on British streets regardless of where they come from,” and that attempts to kill and kidnap increases the risk for U.K. citizens to be hurt in the process. “We think it needs to be met with an appropriate response at a government-to-government level,” he added. WORKING WITH THE ENEMY Iran’s emergence as a top-level threat to Britain has seen it deepen its relationship with the other “big four” of threats to UK security — Russia, China and North Korea. The ISC’s report noted that a shared concern about the United States has seen Iran become the main partner of Russia in the Middle East, and that it appears that the two country’s intelligence agencies are sharing intelligence which could increase the threat to the U.K.. It added that Iran’s relationship with China is more economic, with China becoming Iran’s biggest trade and economic partner and representing 36 percent of Iran’s exports. The ISC’s chair told POLITICO that military support for Russia and economic ties to China are a concern, but said Iran’s relationship with North Korea was “more concerning” on both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. North Korea has performed detonations in at least six nuclear tests — most recently in 2017 — and is actively working to develop warheads that it can place on intercontinental ballistic missiles. Its support for Russia and Iran has raised international concerns that these states can help Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship get to that point. John Bolton, the former U.S. National Security advisor told the committee in 2023: “This connection between North Korea and Iran, which we do not fully know about or understand is something that should be in our minds at all times.” Beyond global superpowers, the report noted that Iran — just as it does with attacks on British soil — uses proxies abroad. In the Middle East it uses a network of complex relationships with militant and terrorist groups in order to give it a deniable means of attacking British armed forces and those of its allies.