Trump pays respects to 2 Iowa National Guardsmen and interpreter killed
in Syria as they return home
[December 18, 2025]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and DARLENE SUPERVILLE
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump paid his
respects Wednesday to two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S.
civilian interpreter who were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert,
joining their grieving families as their remains were brought back to
the country they served.
Trump met privately with the families at Dover Air Force Base in
Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries
on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent
ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.
The guardsmen killed in Syria 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 the
1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, and have been hailed as heroes by
the Iowa National Guard. Their remains will be taken to Iowa.
Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an
interpreter, was also killed. He will be laid to rest in Michigan this
weekend.
The families of all three victims were at Dover for the return of their
remains, alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s
congressional delegation and leaders of the Iowa National Guard.
The slain National Guard members were among hundreds of U.S. troops
deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic
State group.
Returning to Joint Base Andrews after the transfer, Trump said it was a
"beautiful event for three great people. And they’re now looking down
and their parents and wives and all of the people that were there were,
I mean, were devastated but great people, great people.”
The return of service member remains
Trump observed several dignified transfers at Dover in his first term
and has said it was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
There is no formal role for a president at a dignified transfer other
than to watch in silence, keeping all thoughts to himself for the
moment. There is no speaking by any of the politicians and other
dignitaries who attend, with the only words coming from the military
officials who direct the highly choreographed transfers.
Trump, wearing an overcoat against the chill and brisk wind, joined the
other attendees in a salute that was held as each of the American
flag-draped transfer cases was carried from the belly of a hulking C-17
military cargo plane and loaded into a dark, unmarked van nearby.
He gazed straight ahead as each case passed in front of him, though he
turned to look after the first one was placed inside the vehicle. The
remains were taken to the on-base mortuary for processing before they
are released to the families.
At the start of the transfer, Trump and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined several others from the military at
the open rear of the cargo plane, where all but Trump bowed their heads.
The president looked inside the plane. Trump then stood alongside
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when the group joined the official party.
Before Trump joined the others, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles,
who flew up with Trump, dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
Iowa National Guard members hailed as heroes
Howard's stepfather, Jeffrey Bunn, has said Howard “loved what he was
doing and would be the first in and last out.” He said Howard had wanted
to be a soldier since he was a boy. Howard's brother, a staff sergeant
in the Iowa National Guard, was escorting him back to Iowa.
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President Donald Trump salutes as a Army carry team moves the
flag-draped transfer case with the remains of Iowa National Guard
soldier Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa,
during a casualty return, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, at Dover Air
Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Torres-Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” family-oriented
person who always put others first, according to fellow Guard
members who were deployed with him and issued a statement to the
local TV broadcast station WOI.
Dina Qiryaqoz, the daughter of the civilian interpreter, said
Wednesday in a statement that her father worked for the U.S. Army
during the invasion of Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Sakat is survived by
his wife and four adult children.
The interpreter was from Bakhdida, Iraq, a small Catholic village
southeast of Mosul, and the family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 on
a special visa, Qiryaqoz said. At the time of his death, Sakat was
employed as an independent contractor for Virginia-based Valiant
Integrated Services.
Qiryaqoz said she and two of her siblings met with Trump and Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth privately Wednesday. She described the
meeting as comforting and assuring, with both strongly condemning
the attack and expressing gratitude for her father’s service.
“He seemed like he really cared about my dad and the other soldiers
that were unfortunately killed during this attack,” she said of
Trump in an interview.
Trump's reaction to the attack in Syria
Trump has vowed retaliation, and the Pentagon's chief spokesperson,
Sean Parnell, has said the attack is under active investigation. The
U.S. military said the gunman was killed in the attack.
Before this attack, the most recent instance of U.S. service members
being killed in action was in January 2024, when three American
troops died in a drone attack in Jordan.
Saturday's deadly attack followed a rapprochement between the U.S.
and Syria, bringing the former pariah state into a U.S.-led
coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
Trump has forged a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed
al-Sharaa, the onetime leader of an Islamic insurgent group who led
the ouster of former President Bashar Assad. The leaders met at the
White House last month.
Trump said Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian
leader, who Trump said was “devastated by what happened.”
During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a U.S.
Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 for two Army
officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 for
two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an
Afghan army uniform opened fire.
——
Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writers
Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Lansing,
Michigan, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to
this report.
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