Three U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan, the NATO Resolute Support mission said on Tuesday, November 27.
“Three U.S. service members were killed and three wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated November 27 near Ghazni city. One American contractor was also wounded,” Resolute Support said in an email statement.
Update, November 29: The Department of Defense on Wednesday identified the service members as Army Captain Andrew Patrick Ross, Army Sergeant First Class Eric Michael Emond, and Air Force Staff Sergeant Dylan J. Elchin.
Ross, 29, and Emond, 39, were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Elchin, 25, was assigned to the 26th Special Tactics Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico.
The Pentagon said they died of injuries sustained when their vehicle was struck by an IED in the town of Andar in Ghazni province.
The wounded service members and the contractor are receiving medical care.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with its spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid tweeting that the militants targeted the U.S. “invaders.”
Ross, Emond and Elchin’s deaths bring to 13 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year. They also come just days after 25-year-old U.S. Army Sergeant Leandro A.S. Jasso was killed in what what Resolute Support said was an accidental shooting.
An initial review of the November 24 incident found that Jasso was accidentally shot by an Afghan partner force during a close-quarter battle with al-Qaeda in Nimruz province, the NATO mission announced Tuesday.
On November 3, Major Brent Taylor of the Utah National Guard was killed in an insider attack in Kabul.
Taylor served with the Special Operations Joint Task Force in Afghanistan and was due to return home in January.
Less than two weeks earlier, a Czech service member with the Resolute Support mission was killed in an insider attack in Herat province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the October 22 incident, saying an “infiltrator” working at the Shindand airbase in the province opened fire on troops.
The New York Times reported on Monday that U.S. and Czech forces are currently under investigation after Wahidullah Khan, the Afghan commando accused of killing Corporal Tomáš Procházka, was beaten to death in custody.
This story was updated on November 29, 2018 at 1245 GMT with the identities of the service members.
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