Trump will attend the dignified transfer of two National Guard members killed in Syria

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will travel to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday to conduct a dignified transfer of two Iowa National Guard members killed in an attack in the Syrian desert that is testing the rapprochement between Washington and Damascus.

The two guards killed in the attack that occurred 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 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment. An American civilian serving as an interpreter, identified as Iyad Mansour Sakat of Macomb, Michigan, was also killed on Tuesday.

Read more: The US Army announces the killing of two members of the Iowa National Guard in an attack in Syria

Held at Dover Air Force Base to honor U.S. service members killed in action, this ritual is one of the most solemn duties of a commander in chief.

During this process, American flag-covered transport boxes holding the remains of dead soldiers are transferred from the military aircraft that transported them to Dover to a waiting vehicle to transport them to the base morgue. There, fallen service members are prepared for their final resting places.

Trump, a Republican, said during his first term that witnessing the dignified transfer of military service members’ remains is “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do” as president.

Cited as “the best of Iowa”

The Iowa National Guard remembers both men as heroes. Howard’s stepfather, Jeffrey Boone, said that Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and the last out,” noting that he had wanted to become a soldier since he was a young boy.

In a post on the Miskwaki Police Department’s Facebook page, Boone, who is chief of the Tama, Iowa, department, described Howard as a loving husband and “an amazing man of faith,” and said Howard’s brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, would accompany Nate to Iowa.

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Torres Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” person who was family-oriented and someone who always put others first, according to fellow guards who were deployed with Torres Tovar and issued a statement to local television broadcast station WOI.

“They were dedicated professionals and treasured members of our Guard family who represent the best of Iowa,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Osborne, commanding general of the Iowa National Guard.

Trump stands with Syrian President Shara

Trump told reporters on Saturday that he was mourning the dead and vowed revenge.

Trump said Monday that he remains confident in the leadership of 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, whose family had an iron grip on Syrian rule for decades.

The US President received Al-Sharaa in Washington last month in a historic visit to the White House and officially welcomed Syria as a member of the US-led coalition to fight ISIS. Hundreds of American forces are deployed in eastern Syria as part of the coalition fighting ISIS.

“This has nothing to do with him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “This had something to do with ISIS.”

Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were injured in the attack. As of Monday, two were in stable condition and the other was in good condition. The Pentagon did not identify them.

Trump traveled to Dover several times during his first term to honor the dead, including a Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when someone wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire.