Kettering sergeant may have died in friendly fire

THE MILITARY /

WASHINGTON — Two Army Rangers, one from Kettering, Ohio, killed during a raid on an Islamic State compound in eastern Afghanistan may have died as a result of friendly fire during the opening minutes of the fierce, three-hour firefight, the Pentagon said Friday.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the U.S. military is investigating to see if the men were accidentally killed by ground fire from Afghan commandos or other American forces. He said the deaths did not appear deliberate.

Killed were Army Sgts. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, of Bloomington, Illinois, and Cameron H. Thomas, 23, of Kettering. The families of the two Rangers have been told it was possible they died from friendly fire.

According to Davis, the head of the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, Abdul Haseeb Logari, was the target of the Wednesday raid. He said officials suspect that Logari was among several key leaders killed.

About 35 other enemy fighters were killed, and one other Army Ranger received a minor head wound during the battle.

“This was a dangerous mission and we knew this going in,” Davis told Pentagon reporters. “This was the leader of ISIS in Afghanistan. We knew that he was going to be well protected and that they were going to fight very hard to prevent him from being captured or killed.”

About 50 Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos were dropped off by helicopter around 10:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, for the raid in Nangarhar province.

“Within minutes of the insertion the combined force came under intense fire from multiple directions. It was during these initial moments of the raid that the two Rangers were mortally wounded,” Davis said. He added that the U.S. and Afghan troops were being fired on from prepared positions on all sides.

Davis said manned and unmanned aircraft, including AC-130 gunships, Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets, were used to support the raid.

The compound is located about a mile from where the U.S., two weeks ago, dropped what is called the “mother of all bombs” on an IS complex.