Washington– President Donald Trump will assume one of the most solemn duties a commander in chief faces on Wednesday when he will witness the dignified transfer of two Iowa National Guard members killed in an attack in the Syrian desert.
Rites are held at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to honor U.S. service members killed in action. Trump, who traveled to Dover several times in his first term, once called it “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do” as president.
The two guards killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment. The men were hailed as heroes by the Iowa National Guard.
An American civilian acting as an interpreter, identified as Iyad Mansour Sakat of Macomb, Michigan, was also killed on Tuesday. Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were injured in the attack. The Pentagon did not identify them.
They were among hundreds of American forces deployed in eastern Syria as part of the coalition fighting ISIS.
During the operation in Dover, American flag-covered transport boxes holding the remains of fallen soldiers are moved from a military aircraft to a waiting vehicle. The vehicle then transports them to the base morgue, where fallen service members are prepared for their final rest.
Trump told reporters over the weekend that he was saddened by the deaths of the soldiers and vowed revenge.
Saturday’s attack comes after a rapprochement between the United States and Syria, which led to the former pariah state joining the US-led coalition to fight ISIS.
Trump established a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was the leader of an Islamist rebel group that led the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad.
Trump, who met with Sharaa last month at the White House, told reporters on Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian leader, whom Trump described as “devastated by what happened.”
During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a US Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 to honor two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 to honor two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when someone wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire.
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