Two U.S. troops killed, one wounded in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said two American troops were killed and a third was wounded Wednesday night during a raid against the Islamic State’s affiliate in eastern Afghanistan, near the site where an 11-ton U.S. bomb was dropped earlier this month.

The service members were conducting an operation alongside Afghan forces in Nangarhar province, where a U.S.backed offensive is underway against Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K. Khorasan is the historic name for a region that encompassed parts of modern-day Afghanistan.

“The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “On behalf of all U.S. forces and our coalition partners, I offer our deepest sympathies to the families, friends, and fellow service members of our fallen comrades.”

The deaths occurred as U.S. and Afghan forces were conducting a raid against a prison where the Islamic State kept civilians as prisoners, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesperson for the Nangarhar governor’s office.

There now have been three U.S. service members killed fighting the Islamic State in Afghanistan in 2017 — all in Nangarhar.

That is the province where, on April 12, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb in its arsenal on a cave-and-tunnel complex that it said was used by Islamic State fighters.