CENTCOM Announces Killing of Individual Linked to Attack That Killed Three Americans in Palmyra

ARK News.. The U.S. military announced it has killed an individual linked to an attack that left three Americans dead in the Syrian city of Palmyra last month, in an airstrike carried out in northwestern Syria.

In a post published on X, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the target of Friday’s strike was Bilal Hassan al-Jassim, whom it described as a “seasoned terrorist leader who planned attacks and was directly linked to an ISIS fighter responsible for last month’s Palmyra attack.”

CENTCOM said al-Jassim was affiliated with al-Qaeda, without providing further details on the nature of his links to ISIS or to the perpetrator of the Palmyra attack.

The announcement came a week after U.S. and allied forces carried out what Washington described as “large-scale” strikes against ISIS targets in Syria.

U.S. officials had previously said that a lone ISIS militant carried out the December 13, 2025 attack in Palmyra, in central Syria, killing three Americans—two soldiers and a civilian interpreter.

According to Syria’s Interior Ministry, the perpetrator of the Palmyra attack was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed over concerns that he held “takfiri or extremist ideas.”

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