Attack Kills American Service Member in Eastern Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — An attack on Monday in eastern Afghanistan killed one American service member and wounded another in the second United States military combat death this year in the enduring war.
The American-led international mission in Kabul announced the casualties but did not identify the troops, pending notification of their next of kin. Several Afghan soldiers were also killed in what the American military deemed a “combat operation.”
Roughly 14,000 American troops are spread across Afghanistan in a war that is now in its 17th year. The forces are split between training the Afghan military to fight the Taliban and hunting terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State’s affiliate in the country, which is known as the Khorasan group.
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In eastern Afghanistan, the American military has been fighting the Khorasan group since 2015 — shortly after the extremists began seizing large pieces of territory from the Afghan government and the Taliban.
On Jan. 1, Sgt. First Class Mihail Golin, a Green Beret, was killed and four other soldiers were wounded in a gunfight in Nangarhar province. The area is one of the Islamic State’s remaining holdouts in the country’s east.
