ISIS has claimed responsibility for the killing of an American soldier serving in Afghanistan, taking to Twitter to basically boast: Yeah, we did it.
As Breitbart noted, it’s the Afghanistan branch of ISIS, known as the Khorasan Province, that’s actually bragged of the hit that also left three Afghan soldiers dead.
The U.S. service member hasn’t yet been identified.
But the soldier was killed Tuesday while conducting operations in Nangarhar.
“The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan, known as the Khorasan Province (IS-KP/ISIL-K), has claimed responsibility for planting the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that killed a U.S. service member, bringing the number of American military fatalities during the Afghan war to 2,241. …
“An IED, also known as a homemade bomb, has been deemed the deadliest weapon terrorists use against the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops in the course of the ongoing 15-year-old war. …
“The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack the following day, according the jihadist group’s Amaq news agency.”
Peter Cook, a press secretary for the Pentagon, announced the death of the U.S. service member earlier this week.
He said, during the briefing, Breitbart reported:
“I wanted to begin by expressing the sincere condolences not only from Secretary Carter, but from all of us within the Department of Defense to the family of the service member.
“We are still gathering details on exactly what happened, but we understand that this service member died as a result of injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device while the individual was partnered with Afghan forces in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. The mission was conducted as a part of a larger U.S.-Afghan counterterrorism mission targeting ISIL in Afghanistan. …Our operations against ISIL in Afghanistan continue alongside our Afghan partners.”
Cook also tip-toed around the Obama administration’s official announcement in 2014 that U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan had come to an end. Now, U.S. troops stationed in the country are supposed to be there simply to train, assist and guide local troops.
That declaration has been quietly softened, in the wake of growing terror in the region.
Here are the facts, from Breitbart:
“President Barack Obama declared the U.S. combat mission complete at the end of 2014, a move that was supposed to mark the beginning of the train, assist, and advise (TAA) role for American troops.
“However, U.S. troops have since been drawn into combat against a resilient Taliban and its rival ISIL-K.
“Nearly a year after Obama announced the end of the U.S. combat mission, he granted authority to the U.S. military to take offensive action against ISIL-K.
“Earlier this year, Obama also renewed the U.S. military’s authority to offensively attack the Taliban.
“Since the president declared an end to the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, 124 American service members have been wounded in action in the country, and 25 others have died, including 12 who were killed in action.
“Overall, 2,241 U.S. military troops have been killed during the ongoing Afghanistan war, and 20,173 others have been injured. U.S. military fatalities have quadrupled under Obama’s watch, and injuries have increased more than sevenfold.”