U.S. officials are investigating whether the two Army Rangers killed this week battling Islamic State loyalists in eastern Afghanistan were victims of a friendly fire incident, the Pentagon said Friday.
The soldiers were identified as Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, of Fort Benning, Georgia. They were killed by small-arms fire during a vicious firefight in Nangarhar Province, during risky mission targeting the head of ISIS Khorasan, officials said.
"This was a dangerous mission. We knew this going in," said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "This was the leader of ISIS in Afghanistan. We knew he would be heavily protected."
Rodgers and Thomas are the second and third special operations soldiers to die in counter-ISIS operations there this month.
Rodgers was a team leader with C Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. He was on his third deployment to Afghanistan, according to a U.S. Army Special Operations Command bio.
The Normal, Illinois, native enlisted in 2013. Following infantry school, airborne school and Ranger selection, he joined his unit in May 2014.
Rodgers previously served as a machine gunner, semi-automatic gunner and gun team leader.
Thomas was an anti-armor specialist in 3rd Battalion's D Company. He enlisted in early 2012 and also moved straight from basic training to the Ranger Regiment, where he previously served as an automatic rifleman and grenadier.
A third soldier, who has not been identified, was wounded in the same attack. A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul on Thursday said that soldier did not require medical evacuation. Navy Capt. William Salvin characterized the injury as minor.
Army special operations soldiers have been fighting ISIS elements in Afghanistan since earlier this year as part of Operation Freedom's Sentinel
The incident Wednesday night and into Thursday morning local time occurred in Nangarhar's Achin district, which has become a stronghold for the group known as ISIS Khorasan. The Rangers were partnered with Afghan forces on a raid that was part of Operation Hamza, a campaign that began in early March to root out ISIS-K fighters, officials said.
On April 10, Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar was killed in the same area of Afghanistan.
Rodgers' body is scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, on Friday afternoon, according to a release Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations.
