Bomb kills two coalition personnel from U.S., Britain
U.S. says five wounded were evacuated for further treatment.
A roadside bomb in northern Syria killed two coalition personnel, an American and a Briton, and wounded five others in a rare attack since the U.S.-led coalition sent troops into the wartorn country, the U.S. and British militaries and a U.S. defense official said Friday.
The military did not say where the attack took place or give the nationalities of the other casualties, but it came hours after a local Syrian official said that a roadside bomb exploded in the tense, mixed Arab-Kurdish town of Manbij, which is not far from the border with Turkey.
Manbij is under threat of a Turkish military operation. Ankara says Syrian Kurdish militiamen it views as “terrorists” and an extension of Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey are in control of the town.
The U.S. military statement said the attack happened Thursday night and that the wounded were being evacuated for further medical treatment. The statement said details were being withheld pending further investigation.
A Department of Defense official in Washington said one of the two killed was an American service member and the other was of another nationality.
No other information about the deceased American was immediately available. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details had not yet been publicly released.
A U.K. defense ministry spokesman said the British armed forces member was killed during an operation against the Islamic State group. The spokesman added that an improvised explosive device killed the service member who was embedded with U.S. forces on Thursday.
No details on the casualty’s service branch, unit or gender were immediately provided.
The U.S. military member killed was the fourth American who has died in Syria since the U.S. began attacking Islamic State militants there in September 2014, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System.
Of the three previous deaths, Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin Bieren was specifically labeled by the Pentagon as a noncombat death. Another, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, was killed by an improvised explosive device. The third, Army Spc. Etienne J. Murphy, died in a vehicle rollover.
Earlier on Friday, U.S. military spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon couldn’t immediately say who was behind the attack.
“There is an investigation under way to identify who they could possibly be. We have our initial assessment and thoughts on that, but we won’t provide until the investigation is complete,” he said.
Dillon declined to give the nationalities of the dead and wounded as well as the location of the attack until next of kin notification.
Dillon said the coalition has had fatalities in Syria before. “Perhaps by different means, but there have been coalition deaths in Syria over the course of three years.”
Mohammed Abu Adel, head of the Manbij Military Council, an Arab-Kurdish group in the town backed by the U.S., said the bomb went off hundreds of yards from a security headquarters that houses the council just before midnight Thursday.
Earlier on Friday, Dillon said an incident involving coalition forces was reported in Manbij but said no more information was available.
The town has seen a number of small explosions, protests and an assassination attempt on a member of the Manbij military council in recent weeks. Local officials blame Turkey and other adversaries for seeking to sow chaos in the town that was controlled by Islamic State group militants until the summer of 2016.
The military council has since been in control, and U.S. troops patrol the town and area with troops based nearby.
Meanwhile, near the capital, Damascus, there were conflicting reports on whether a main rebel group will evacuate the largest and last rebel-held town in the area, known as eastern Ghouta.
The U.S. military member killed was the fourth American who has died in Syria since the U.S. began attacking Islamic State militants there in September 2014, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System.