2 U.S. service members, 2 U.S. civilians killed in Syria blast

BEIRUT >> Two U.S. service members and two American civilians were among those killed in an explosion while conducting a patrol in Syria on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, an attack that came less than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw troops from the war-torn country.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the morning attack, which local groups said killed 16 people in the U.S.-patrolled town of Manbij.

The claim calls into question Trump’s claim that IS has been defeated in Syria — his stated reason for pulling 2,000 American troops out of the country.

“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” Trump tweeted in December in announcing his intention to bring back U.S. troops “NOW.”

Vice President Mike Pence repeated the claim Wednesday, saying the Islamic State “caliphate has crumbled” and the militant network “has been defeated.” His comments in a speech at the State Department came shortly after the U.S. military announced that American soldiers were among those killed in Manbij.

U.S. Central Command said one of the civilians was employed by the Defense Department and the other was a contractor. The names of the American victims were being withheld until their families could be notified.

Video released by local activists

ANHA VIA AP This frame grab from video provided by Hawar News, ANHA, the news agency for the semi-autonomous Kurdish areas in Syria, shows a damaged restaurant where an explosion occurred, in Manbij, Syria, Wednesday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian war monitoring group, and a local town council said Wednesday that the explosion took place near a patrol of the U.S.-led coalition and that there are casualties.