■ President Donald Trump saluted remains of four Americans killed in Wednesday’s Syria attack.

Meets grieving relatives as remains arrive in U.S.

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — A solemn procession. A long salute. A chaplain’s prayer.

President Donald Trump traveled to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to pay his respects to the returning remains of four Americans who were killed this week in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.

The bombing, which was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the country in 2015, came as Trump prepares to pull U.S. troops out.

The president stood solemnly and saluted the remains of civilian Scott A. Wirtz of St. Louis, as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.

Wirtz and the three other Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. He had been assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as an operations support specialist.

The three other transfers were to be conducted privately, with the president observing. He also spent time with the families of those killed.

Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Saturday that meeting the relatives of the country’s fallen heroes “might be the toughest thing” he has to do as president.

The trip was not listed on the president’s public schedule that was released Friday night, but he tweeted the news in the morning.

“Will be leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country!” he wrote. He later told reporters: “When I’m going to meet relatives of some of our great, great heroes that have fallen, I think it might be the toughest thing I have to do as president.”

Trump said before arriving in Dover that IS has lost almost all its territory but “that doesn’t mean you’re not going to have somebody around.” He also said “we can be pulling back but we’ve been hitting ISIS very hard over the last three weeks … and it’s moving along very well.”

Patrick Semansky The Associated Press President Donald Trump salutes Saturday at Dover Air Force Base, Del., as a U.S. Navy carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Scott A. Wirtz, who was killed in a suicide attack in Syria.