President Trump will head to Dover Air Force Base on Saturday, where he will pay tribute to the four Americans killed in Syria earlier this week.
The trip to Delaware, which was not on the president’s public schedule, will honor four people killed by a suicide bomb in the northern city of Manbij during what the Defense Department described as a routine patrol.
Will be leaving for Dover to be with the families of 4 very special people who lost their lives in service to our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019
Three people have so far been identified as victims of the blast: Army Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer of Florida; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent of New York; and DOD civilian Scott Wirtz of Missouri, who was an operations support specialist with the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The blast, for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility, came not long after Trump announced that the group had been defeated in Syria and the U.S. would withdraw its troops, about 2,000 U.S. special forces operators in Syria. The move has garnered criticism from some quarters, especially because of Russian and Iranian involvement in the conflict.
