The attack on U.S. troops in Syria is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of President Bashar Assad a year ago.

Central Command said in a post on X that as a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Department of Defense policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”

The shooting took place near historic Palmyra, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which earlier said two members of Syria’s security force and several U.S. service members had been wounded. The casualties were taken by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan.

SANA said the attacker was killed, without providing further details.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacker was a member of the Syrian security force.

The U.S. has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

Last month, Syria joined the international coalition fighting against the IS as Damascus improves its relations with Western countries following the ouster of Assad when insurgents captured his seat of power in Damascus.

The U.S. had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family rule. The interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, made a historic visit to Washington last month where he held talks with President Donald Trump.

IS was defeated on the battlefield in Syria in 2019 but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in the country. The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.

U.S. troops, which have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria — including Al-Tanf garrison in the central province of Homs — to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against IS, have been targeted in the past. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2019 in the northern town of Manbij when a blast killed two U.S. service members and two American civilians as well as others from Syria while conducting a patrol.

Oracle stock led the latest AI selloff after the hyperscaler’s earnings report and spending guidance renewed fears about excessive capital expenditures.

Jeremy Siegel, Wharton professor emeritus and WisdomTree chief economist, told CNBC on Friday that it’s hard to be certain about the current stock market rotation because there have been “so many head fakes in the past.”

“But as I said, this one has more legs in the sense that there are more things that are happening that throw doubt on how fast or how profitable all the AI buildout is going to be,” he added.

In Oracle’s case, recent delays in data center construction may actually end up being a silver lining if it slows expenditures, but there are still more questions than answers about the profitability of AI, Siegel said.

He noted his research has shown that when companies grow spending faster than their income, they ultimately overexpand, hitting profits and stock returns.

“I’m not saying that that’s necessarily going to happen to AI or certainly all the AI, but that narrative has to come in mind,” Siegel warned.

Also on Friday, Bank of America Securities investment strategist Michael Hartnett said markets are frontrunning a “run-it-hot” scenario expected for next year by rotating into a Main Street trade made up of mid- and small-cap stocks, while getting out of a Wall Street trade consisting of mega-cap names.

Eric Teal, chief investment officer for Comerica Wealth Management, had a similar view in a note on Thursday, saying that the market was dominated by momentum and AI stocks during the first eight months of the year.

But since then, concerns about valuations, margin sustainability, and high debt shifted sentiment around the technology sector.

Financial and healthcare stocks have been more appealing, while small caps and even “micro-cap stocks” will benefit from falling short-term rates, he added.

“More importantly, we foresee this rotation in the early stages with relative valuations remaining attractive,” Teal predicted. 

Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican alternative late Friday, a last-minute sprint as his party refuses to extend the enhanced tax subsidies for those who buy policies through the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, which are expiring at the end of the year. Those subsidies help lower the cost of coverage.

Johnson, R-La., huddled behind closed doors in the morning — as he did days earlier this week — working to assemble the package for consideration as the House focuses the final days of its 2025 work on health care.

“House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the package. He said it would be voted on next week.

Later Friday, though, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said: “House Republicans have introduced toxic legislation that is completely unserious, hurts hardworking America taxpayers and is not designed to secure bipartisan support. If the bill reaches the House floor, I will strongly oppose it.”

Time is running out for Congress to act. Democrats engineered the longest federal government shutdown ever this fall in a failed effort to force Republicans to the negotiating table on health care. But after promising votes, the Senate failed this week to advance both a Republican health care plan and the Democratic-offered bill to extend the tax credits for three years.

Now, with just days to go, Congress is about to wrap up its work with no consensus solution in sight.

What Republicans are proposing

The House Republicans offered a 100-plus-page package that focuses on long-sought GOP proposals to enhance access to employer-sponsored health insurance plans and clamp down on so-called pharmacy benefit managers.

Republicans propose expanding access to what’s referred to as association health plans, which would allow more small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together and purchase health coverage.

Proponents say such plans increase the leverage businesses have to negotiate a lower rate. But critics say the plans provide skimpier coverage than what is required under the Affordable Care Act.

The Republicans’ proposal would also require more data from pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, as a way to help control drug costs. Critics say PBMs have padded their bottom line and made it more difficult for independent pharmacists to survive.

Additionally, the GOP plan includes mention of cost-sharing reductions for some lower-income people who rely on Obamacare, but those do not take effect until January 2027.

The emerging package from the House Republicans does not include an extension of an enhanced tax credit for millions of Americans who get insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Put in place during the COVID-19 crisis, that enhanced subsidy expires Dec. 31, leaving most families in the program facing more than double their current out-of-pocket premiums, and in some cases, much more.

What Trump wants

President Donald Trump has said he believes Republicans are going to figure out a better plan than Obamacare — something he has promised for years — but offered few details beyond his idea for providing Americans with stipends to help buy insurance.

“I want to see the billions of dollars go to people, not to the insurance companies,” Trump said late Friday during an event at the White House. “And I want to see the people go out and buy themselves great healthcare.”

The president did not comment directly on the House’s new plan. He has repeatedly touted his idea of sending money directly to Americans to help offset the costs of health care policies, rather than extending the tax credits for those buying policies through Obamacare. It’s unclear how much money Trump envisions. The Senate GOP proposal that failed to advance would have provided payments to new health savings accounts of $1,000 a year for adult enrollees, or $1,500 for those ages 50 to 64.

It appeared there were no such health savings accounts in the new House GOP plan.

Political pressure is building for many

Going Johnson’s route has left vulnerable House Republicans representing key battleground districts in a tough spot.

Frustrated with the delays, a group of more centrist GOP lawmakers is aligning with Democrats to push their own proposals for continuing the tax credits, for now, so that Americans don’t face rising health care costs.

They are pursuing several paths for passing a temporary ACA subsidy extension, co-sponsoring a handful of bills. They are also signing onto so-called discharge petitions that could force a floor vote if a majority of the House signs on.

Such petitions are designed to get around the majority’s control and are rarely successful, but this year has proven to be an exception. Lawmakers, for example, were able to use a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files held by the Department of Justice.

One petition, filed by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., had signatures from 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats as of Friday afternoon. It would force a vote on a bill that includes a two-year subsidy extension and contains provisions designed to combat fraud in the ACA marketplace. There are also restrictions for PBMs, among other things.

Another petition from Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., has 39 signatures and is broadly bipartisan. It’s a simpler proposal that would force a vote on a one-year ACA enhanced subsidy extension and would include new income caps limiting who qualifies for the enhanced credit.

Both discharge petitions have enough Republicans’ support that they would likely succeed if Jeffries encouraged his caucus to jump on board. So far, he’s not tipping his hand.

“We’re actively reviewing those two discharge petitions and we’ll have more to say about it early next week,” Jeffries said.

Meanwhile, Jeffries is pushing Democrats’ own discharge petition, which has 214 signatures and would provide for a clean three-year subsidy extension. No Republicans have signed onto that one.

And as Republicans made clear in the Senate this week, a three-year extension without changes to the program has no chance of passing their chamber.