2 Rangers killed in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON - Two American Army Rangers were killed and another received a minor injury during a ground assault against Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan Wednesday, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
The U.S. forces were accompanying Afghan troops on the raid when they came under attack by the Islamic State Khorasan group in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, the U.S. military spokesman in Kabul.
Dozens of Islamic State fighters also were killed.
The U.S. and Afghan troops had flown into the area by helicopter then advanced on foot. They 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.
The ground assault was in Mohmand Valley, the same region where the U.S., two weeks ago, dropped what is called the “mother of all bombs” on an Islamic State complex.
The 11-ton bomb, the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S., targeted the subterranean passages the militants used for weeks to evade an ongoing operation by U.S. and Afghan forces.
Afghan officials have said that 94 militants were killed in the April 12 bombing.
The bombing came just days after Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Maryland, was killed in the region. He became the first American service member killed in combat this year in Afghanistan after coming under fire April 8 in Nangarhar’s Achin district.
With Wednesday’s deaths, there now have been three U.S. service members killed fighting the Islamic State in Afghanistan in 2017.
The U.S. has been battling the Islamic State group in Afghanistan for months and estimates that it now includes about 800 fighters there.
“The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” said Gen. John Nicholson, 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.”
There have been 1,835 American troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.