President Donald Trump is heading to Dover Air Force Base to pay tribute to the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week.
President Donald Trump was paying tribute Saturday to the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week as he set off to Dover Air Force Base for the return of their remains.
The trip was not listed on the president’s public schedule that was released Friday night, but he tweeted the news before his Saturday morning departure from the White House.
“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.
The visit comes during a budget fight that has consumed Washington for the past month, shuttering parts of the federal government and leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay. Trump planned an announcement later Saturday that was expected to outline a deal the White House hopes might pave the way for the shutdown’s end.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij that came about a month after Trump had declared that the militants had been defeated and that he was withdrawing U. S. forces from the country.
The attack highlighted the threat still posed by IS despite Trump’s assertion and could complicate that withdrawal plan. Some of his senior advisers have disagreed with the decision and have offered an evolving timetable for the removal of the approximately 2,000 U. S. troops.
The bombing, which also wounded three U. S. troops, was the deadliest assault on U. S. forces in Syria since they went into the country in 2015.
