A security patrol in Maarrat al-Numan, in the southern Idlib countryside, came under fire on Sunday evening, 14 December 2025. Four members of Syria’s internal security forces died. A fifth was wounded. The Interior Ministry reported the casualties and said nobody has claimed responsibility.
The ministry described the dead as members of its road security department, hit while on duty on the Maaret al Numan road. Syria’s state news agency SANA said gunmen opened fire on the personnel. The ministry said its forces had started extensive search operations to find those responsible.
The shooting came a day after a separate assault in Palmyra, in central Syria, on a joint US-Syrian patrol. Two American soldiers and a translator were killed. US President Donald Trump called it “a DAESH attack against the US and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria” and promised “very serious retaliation.” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al Shaibani called that attack “a new challenge in the fight against terrorism.”
Syrian authorities responded on Sunday with a security operation against DAESH cells in the Homs countryside. The Interior Ministry said five people suspected of links to the Palmyra shooting had been arrested. Nothing in the ministry’s statements connected the two attacks.
Syria’s new administration has been trying to restore security since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024. Assad led the country for nearly 25 years and fled to Russia, ending the Baath Party’s rule, which had begun in 1963. A transitional administration under President Ahmed al-Sharaa took shape in January.
Sources
- 4 Syrian security members killed in armed attack in Idlib
- TRT World – Four Syrian security personnel killed in northwest Idlib attack
