Friendly Fire May Have Killed Soldiers, Pentagon Says

The Pentagon is investigating whether two Army Rangers killed Thursday during an anti-ISIS operation were the victims of friendly fire, officials said Friday. The soldiers were killed during a raid on the compound of the ISIS emir in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib.

The Pentagon identified them as Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, of Bloomington, Illinois, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, of Kettering, Ohio. Officials said their families had been notified they may have been victims of friendly fire.

On Friday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis released a statement praising the soldiers.

"The families and fellow Rangers of Sgt. Joshua 'Josh' Rodgers and Sgt. Cameron Thomas have my respect and sympathies," said Mattis. "Fighting alongside their Afghan partners, Josh and Cameron proved themselves willing to go into danger and impose a brutal cost on enemies in their path.

"They carried out their operation against ISIS-K in Afghanistan before making the ultimate sacrifice to defend our nation and our freedoms. Our nation owes them an irredeemable debt, and we give our deepest condolences to their families."

ISIS-K, also known as the Khorasan group, is the ISIS branch in Afghanistan and is made up mostly of formerly members of the Afghan Taliban and the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, according to Defense Department officials.

Captain Jeff Davis, the Pentagon's director of press operations, said that the Rangers were mortally wounded at the start of the battle.

Davis said that those on scene reported enemy fire coming at them from all angles and that they found themselves in close-quarters fighting.

Davis said, adding that U.S. strikes from the ground and the air were used in self-defense.

A third solider was injured in the raid but was able to remain with the unit.

Nearly three dozen ISIS soldiers — possibly including Hasib — were killed in the raid, "which should significantly degrade ISIS-K operations and help to destroy the ISIS-K affiliate that's there," Davis said.

The raid in the Nangargar province in eastern Afghanistan involved 50 Army Rangers and almost as many Afghan soldiers. The attack on the compound lasted three hours.

The Rangers and Afghan soldiers were almost immediately met with heavy fire from the ISIS compound and called in support from Apache helicopters, drones and other aircraft.

Nangarhar is the same province where a soldier was killed earlier this month. Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Maryland, died April 8 from injuries sustained when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations.

De Alencar was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

It is also the province where the so-called "Mother of all bombs" was dropped earlier this month, killing as many as 100 ISIS soldiers.

This is the second friendly fire investigation launched under the Trump Administration. In January, Navy SEAL Ryan Owens was killed during a mission in Yemen in an incident also being probed as friendly fire.

This story will be updated.

U.S. Air Force file photo of soldiers on patrol in Nangarhar province by Staff Sgt. Corey Hook/Released/Pentagon