A U.S. service member was killed in Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province Tuesday after his patrol triggered a roadside bomb. The blast also wounded another American and six Afghan soldiers.
(WashingtonPost)- According to a statement released by the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, U.S. troops were accompanying their Afghan counterparts near the province’s capital of Lashkar Gah when their unit came under attack.
“On behalf of all of U.S. Forces — Afghanistan, as well as Resolute Support, our deepest sympathies go out to the families and friends of those involved,” Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
The incident is currently under investigation and the identity of the deceased service member will be released following notification of their next-of-kin.
Col. Mike Lawhorn, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said that the U.S. service member who was killed Tuesday was not a part of the 100-troop detachment. While it is unclear what unit the wounded and killed American troops belong to, U.S. Special Operations Forces have been operating in and around the city since the Taliban began their offensive in the province earlier this summer.
Tuesday’s death marks the second combat death in Afghanistan this year. In January, Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Matthew McClintock was killed in a pitched firefight alongside Afghan commandos in Marjah, a city in a fertile area just west of Lashkar Gah.