ILLINOIS SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN ASSAULT, POSSIBLY BY FRIENDLY FIRE
A downstate Bloomington resident, one of two U. S. Army Rangers killed Wednesday in Afghanistan, may have been hit by friendly fire.
The Americans were killed, and a third wounded, during a ground assault against Islamic State fighters Wednesday, according to the U. S. military.
On Friday, the Pentagon said they were killed in a night raid against an Islamic State compound and may have died from friendly fire.
The U. S. forces were accompanying Afghan troops on a raid when they came under attack by the Islamic State Khorasan group in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, U. S. military spokesman in Kabul. Dozens of IS fighters were also killed.
The Department of Defense did not release the names of the soldiers killed, but friends and family members on Facebook identified him as Sgt. Josh P. Rodgers, 22, a native of Bloomington and a 2013 graduate of Normal CommunityHigh School.
“Within a few minutes of landing, our combined force came under intense fire from multiple directions and wellprepared fighting positions,” the Pentagon statement said. “Nevertheless, our forces successfully closed on the enemy, killed several high- level ISIS- K leaders and upwards of 35 fighters.”
U. S. Forces Afghanistan said in a statement that it “is investigating the possibility that the two Rangers were accidentally killed by friendly fire.” The statement said the two men’s families have been notified of the possibility.
Easton Schaber, a friend of Rodgers, posted: “This is crazy … I always looked up to this guy in football and track in high school … he was a man of very few words and if you needed him he was always there. Rest easy Josh Rodgers. I know I’ll see you again.”
An online biography of Rodgers, posted on the Facebook page of RLTW, an Army Rangers alumni group, said he was born Aug. 22, 1994, in Normal; enlisted in the Army in August 2013; and completed basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, as an infantryman.
He then completed the Basic Airborne Course, followed by a Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, also at Fort Benning. After graduation, he was assigned to Company C, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Rodgers was a machine gunner, semiautomatic gunner, gun team leader and Ranger team leader who was serving his third deployment to Afghanistan, according to RLTW.