Two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter have been been killed in Syria in an ambush by a lone Islamic State gunman, the US military has said. The Pentagon said three other service members were injured in the attack, during which the gunman was "engaged and killed".

The Pentagon said the attack happened during a counter-ISIS engagement near Palmyra and remains under investigation.

Three U.S. military personnel — two army soldiers and a civilian interpreter — were killed on Saturday after an attacker targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces, the U.S. military said.

Since the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad last December, the Trump administration has embraced the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has ties to Al Qaida. The Islamic State, which the U.S. declared in 2019 was mostly defeated, has remained a threat in Syria and has continued to conduct attacks since Assad’s departure.

Injuries were reported in an attack that the Syrian government’s news agency said happened near the ancient city of Palmyra.