SAS sniper was killed during secret mission

A BRITISH and an American soldier killed in Syria last week were on a secret mission to kill or capture a member of Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (Isil), the Pentagon has confirmed.

Sgt Matt Tonroe, a SAS sniper from Manchester, and Master Sgt Jonathan Dunbar, from Austin, Texas, died in an improvised explosive device blast in Manbij, Syria.

Few details have been released about the circumstances, but Major Adrian Rankine-galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday that they died in a top secret mission. The US military has not said whether the IED was in a building, a vehicle or buried in the road. The troops – five others were wounded – were out of their vehicles at the time. There is no word on whether the target was found and captured or killed.

CNN reported that Dunbar was assigned to a unit that specialises in high-risk counter-terrorism and hostage rescue missions.

Special operations forces had been in the Manbij area recently looking for highvalue Isil operatives who may have fled to the area, the US official said. There are currently around 2,000 US troops in Syria, who work with local allies fighting Isil.