Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, both serving with 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division of the Iowa National Guard, were identified as the two soldiers killed in an ISIS-affiliated attack in central Syria on Saturday, according to a post by Sent Defender on X during the reporting window ending at 12:46 p.m. UTC on December 16. The soldiers were part of the Iowa National Guard unit currently deployed to the Middle East, Sent Defender reported over the past 90 minutes. Separately, Nour al-Din al-Baba, spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Interior, stated that a specific operation targeted the group involved in an attack on a road security and customs patrol some time ago, with details to be announced in due course, according to Spectrum News on Telegram during the same period.
