Two US service members were attacked in Turkey on Monday by a group of anti-American protesters during a violent, caught-on-camera confrontation.
The shocking 10-second clip — which was posted to X— captures one of the servicemen victim standing in the center of a half-dozen men who are seizing him by the arms and torso.
Online reports identified the man as a serviceman from the USS Wasp, who had just docked in Turkey, and that the incident occurred in the Turkish port city of Izmir.
The attackers chanted, “Yankee, go home!” as one assailant wrapped a bag around the unidentified victim’s shaved head.
A man outside the group rushed in to try to thwart the attack and wrestled with an older assailant in glasses while another attacker ran up and threw a weak punch into the intervener’s shoulder.
Turkish authorities detained 15 members of the Youth Union of Turkey for the assault, which the group also posted to its own X account.
“US soldiers, who carry the blood of our soldiers and thousands of Palestinians on their hands, cannot defile our country,” the group said in the post, according to Stars and Stripes.
The Pentagon said on Monday that it was investigating the video, which had nearly 235,000 views as of this afternoon.
“We’ve seen the reports on social media about a U.S. service member being assaulted in Izmir and are working to confirm the details of what occurred,” Navy Forces Europe spokesman Cmdr. Tim Gorman said in a statement.
The USS Wasp arrived Sunday at the port for a scheduled visit, and sailors and Marines took tours of the area organized by the ship’s administrators, according to The Mirror.
Before it pulled in, the ship — which carries more than 3,000 crew and embarked troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit — had participated in a joint training exercise with the Turkish Navy, the outlet added.
The Wasp — which is designed to carry aircraft and Marines into combat — has been on duty in the Mediterranean since June. It is part of a regional naval buildup meant to deter Iran from attacking Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of a Hamas official in Tehran back in July, Stars and Stripes said.
It’s the first time the Wasp has operated in the Mediterranean since being moved from Japan to Norfolk, Va., about five years ago.
But it’s not the first time American service members have been attacked in Turkey.
In 2014, three US Navy sailors from the USS Ross were attacked by Youth Union members, who also chanted “Yankee, go home!” as they tried to wrap bags over their victims’ heads during a stop in Istanbul, according to CNN.
In a statement posted to the group’s website at the time, members said they were protesting American “imperialism” in the Middle East and throughout the world.
“Long live oppressed nation’s war against imperialism,” the statement said.
The Navy investigated the incident, which left the sailors physically unharmed.
Both American and Turkish officials condemned the attack, which the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs called “in no way tolerable.”
According to the outlet, the Turks use bags to reference a 2003 incident in which US forces in Iraq detained Turkish special forces soldiers who they believed were smuggling weapons to a Turkish-backed group in the city of Kirkuk.
The American troops allegedly put bags over the heads of the Turkish troops before eventually releasing them.
