2 Americans slain in fight against ISIS
Two U.S. service members were killed during operations against the Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the deaths occurred overnight in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, where a small but virulent Islamic State cell poses a threat to Afghan and U.S. coalition forces.
An Afghan military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss current operations, said that there had been a joint U.S.-Afghan operation in a village near Nangarhar’s Achin district Wednesday but was not aware of any casualties. He noted, however, that it had been a long day of fighting.
Navy Lt. Chris Donlon, a spokesman forU.S. forces in Afghanistan confirmed that the incident happened close to Achin and near where U.S. aircraft dropped a massive 22,000 pound bomb two weeks ago. The bomb targeted a sprawling Islamic State tunnel complex.
The deaths mark the third time this year that a member of the U.S. military has died in combat in Afghanistan.
A third service member was wounded during this week’s incident, which occurred on Wednesday evening during a U.S.-Afghan raid on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan said in a statement. “The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” said Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, referring to the Islamic State cell in Afghanistan, knownas Islamic State-Khorasan Province.
Nicholson has called for thousands of additional troops to help prop up the Afghan military, which is struggling to hold off the Taliban and an array of other militant groups.