DAMASCUS, January 16 -- American servicemen were killed in a suicide attack that targeted the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Wednesday, the US-led coalition said. It did not specify how many soldiers were killed in the blast which was claimed by ISIS but unidentified US officials told Reuters and Bloomberg that up to four Americans may have been killed. The US troops were conducting a "routine patrol" in Manbij at the time of the attack, the coalition said in a statement on Twitter. The White House said President Donald Trump has been fully briefed. "We will continue to monitor the ongoing situation in Syria," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters during a briefing. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 16 people have died, including five US-backed fighters as well as nine civilians. The war monitor and the Kurdish-run Hawar News Agency reported that at least two US troops died in the blast. Amaq – ISIS's media wing – claimed that the attacker used a suicide vest to strike at coalition forces near a resteraunt in the flashpoint Kurdish-held city. A video posted on social media networks purported to show the moment the attacker detonated his suicide vest. The National could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage. The attack came one day after coalition forces and US-backed fighters captured a key village from ISIS in their last holdout east of the Euphrates River, leaving just 15 square kilometres of land under the militants' control.
It is the first major attack that explicitly targets US forces in Syria since Mr Trump announced that he would be withdrawing troops from the country. Sharfan Darwish, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Manbij Military Council (MMC), said the blast took place on a crowded street. He said there were casualties but did not specify how many people died.
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