The Pentagon announced Thursday that two U.S. military service members were killed Wednesday night during an anti-Islamic State operation in Afghanistan.
U.S. Central Command issued a press release on the two service members killed and a third soldier who was wounded with injuries that are reportedly not life threatening. Their identities and service and unit affiliations are being withheld until at least 24 hours after the next of kin of those killed have been notified. However, a U.S. official told CNN they were Special Operations Forces soldiers.
CENTCOM: 2 U.S. service members killed and a third wounded during raid against insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. https://t.co/v3AZIHFSbH pic.twitter.com/zTLpjrVMCi
— ABC News (@ABC) April 27, 2017
The service members were part of a joint operation with Afghan security forces that took place in the Achin District of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
Achin is the primary base of operations for the ISIS branch in Afghanistan, and therefore has been subject to multiple U.S.-Afghanistan joint counterterrorism missions. It is also the same area where the military dropped America's largest non-nuclear bomb, the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, earlier this month to target an ISIS tunnel network, killing dozens of jihadists.
The Achin District is also where another American soldier, Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, was killed earlier this month.