US vows retaliation for Islamic State group attack
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.2 • 7.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Donald Trump has promised retaliation against the Islamic State militant group after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in an ambush in Syria. Damascus has condemned the attack as well. Also: Israel says it has killed the senior Hamas commander Raed Saad. The opposition in Belarus celebrates the release of political prisoners. Chile's presidential election sees a communist candidate take on the far-right. And, with the latest Avatar film about to hit cinemas, we hear from the composer who spent years writing its score.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | This is the Global News Podcasts from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.9 | I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Sunday the 14th of December, these are our main |
| 0:16.8 | stories. A gunman allied to Islamic State has killed three Americans as an army base in Syria. |
| 0:23.1 | The Israeli government has announced the killing of a senior Hamas commander and Chile goes to the |
| 0:28.7 | polls on Sunday, but will voters choose the far right or a communist? Also in this podcast, Belarus celebrates the release of political prisoners, |
| 0:41.3 | but opposition leaders insist their struggle continues. |
| 0:44.8 | Our goal is to change the situation in Belarus so that their country becomes truly democratic and independent. |
| 0:50.6 | And a manhunt is underway in the US state of Rhode Island after a mass shooting at one of the |
| 0:56.5 | country's top universities. |
| 1:03.2 | Intelligence sources estimate there are still between 5,000 and 7,000 members of the extremist |
| 1:08.8 | Islamic State Group at large in Iraq and Syria, some of them |
| 1:12.6 | in sleeper cells which carry out regular attacks. And there was a terrible reminder of that |
| 1:17.6 | on Saturday when three Americans were killed by a gunman at an army base close to Syria's famous |
| 1:23.3 | ruins of Palmyra. Donald Trump, speaking next to a rather noisy helicopter, reacted to the news. |
| 1:30.3 | You know how it happened? An ambush, terrible. We also have three wounded. It seemed to be doing |
| 1:36.7 | pretty well. But we mourned the worst. These are great, three great people. And it's just a terrible |
| 1:43.1 | thing. Syria, by the way, was fighting along with us. |
| 1:46.4 | The new president of Syria is, as they told me, and I'm not surprised, he's devastated by |
| 1:53.7 | what happened. This was an ISIS attack on us and Syria. |
| 1:58.7 | It's pointed that Mr. Trump took the trouble there to refer to the stance of Syria's president, Ahmad al-Shara, |
| 2:05.3 | a sign of how things have changed in the relations between Washington and Syria. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.