U.S., British service members killed by improvised bomb in Syria

[rooster59]

U.S., British service members killed by improvised bomb in Syria

By Idrees Ali and Maher Chmaytelli

 

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. and a British service member in the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State were killed by an improvised explosive device in Syria, U.S and British officials said on Friday.

 

They are the first coalition service members to be killed or wounded in an attack this year.

 

Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity and citing initial information, said one of the people killed in the blast on Thursday blast was an American. They said the incident took place near the city of Manbij in northern Syria.

 

Later, the British Ministry of Defence said a soldier embedded with U.S. forces was also killed. The soldier's family had been informed, a ministry spokesperson said.

 

Earlier on Friday, a coalition statement said two personnel had been killed and five wounded in Syria, but did not provide their nationalities. The wounded were evacuated for treatment, according to the statement.

 

The explosion happened on Thursday night, the coalition statement said.

 

Manbij has largely been cleared of Islamic State and is significant because Turkey, which stormed the northern Syrian town of Afrin after an offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, has repeatedly threatened to push its operations farther east to Manbij.

 

About 10 coalition personnel have been killed in non-combat-related incidents since Jan. 1, including seven Americans who died in a helicopter crash in Iraq earlier this month.

 

Islamic State militants continue to carry out bombings, ambushes and assassinations in Syria and Iraq despite the collapse last year of the cross-border "caliphate" declared in 2014 by their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose whereabouts are unknown.

 

The United States says it has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, deployed alongside Iraqi armed forces. Some 2,000 U.S. troops are in Syria, allied to a Kurdish-led alliance that holds the largest swath of territory still outside the control of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

 

The American casualty comes a day after President Donald Trump said the United States would be leaving Syria "very soon." The State Department said it was not aware of any plans to withdraw from Syria.

 

Senior officials have said there is a need for a longer-term U.S. commitment in Syria.

 

Last year, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he expected to see a larger U.S. civilian presence in Syria, including contractors and diplomats, as the fight against Islamic State militants nears its end and the focus turns toward rebuilding and ensuring the militants do not return.

 

Mattis has previously stated that U.S. forces will stay in Syria as long as Islamic State fighters want to fight and prevent the return of an “ISIS 2.0.”

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-31

[Somtamnication]

Sad. RIP to these two heroes. 

Fighting in a far away land with never an exit policy. 

Islamists did not kill them; their politicians did.

[simple1]

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

a day after President Donald Trump said the United States would be leaving Syria "very soon." The State Department said it was not aware of any plans to withdraw from Syria.

The Trump idiocracy continues.

 

RIP the murdered service personnel. 

[nausea]

The Brit was most likely an SAS guy, methinks.

 

Nothing changes:

 

"A scrimmage in a Border Station --
A canter down some dark defile --
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!"

(Arithmetic, Kipling)

 

Another poem springs to mind:

 

"And think, this heart, all evil shed away,     
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;     
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,     
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven."

(The Soldier, Rupert Brooke)

 

And shame on those using borrowed or stolen valour, for which Pattaya is particularly infamous.

[Daveyh]

1 hour ago, nausea said:

 

 ......... "And shame on those using borrowed or stolen valour, for which Pattaya is particularly infamous".

 

Amen to that! .................... especially all the wanna be's in uniform here with embelishments they have never earned or had the balls to earn in an earlier life. 

Edited March 31, 2018 by Daveyh

[geriatrickid]

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Sad. RIP to these two heroes. 

Fighting in a far away land with never an exit policy. 

Islamists did not kill them; their politicians did.

Rubbish. The people who died were there gathering information on the network of  westerners who  are fighting with the Islamist militants in Syria. They are there to identify these people and to  act to stop them from carrying out violent attacks elsewhere. The governments that sent them there were being proactive in the effort to prevent the terrorists.  The governments ypu blame didn't put Assad in power: He's puppet of Iran and Russia. Go after them instead.

[simple1]

1 hour ago, geriatrickid said:

The people who died were there gathering information on the network of  westerners who  are fighting with the Islamist militants in Syria.

How do you know the specific info concerning the roles of the killed personnel?

Edited March 31, 2018 by simple1

[Morch]

5 hours ago, simple1 said:

The Trump idiocracy continues.

 

RIP the murdered service personnel. 

 

On it goes....

 

Trump freezes $200 million in aid promised to Syria

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-freezes-200-million-aid-promised-syria/story?id=54140183

[Thongkorn]

6 hours ago, nausea said:

The Brit was most likely an SAS guy, methinks.

 

Nothing changes:

 

"A scrimmage in a Border Station --
A canter down some dark defile --
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!"

(Arithmetic, Kipling)

 

Another poem springs to mind:

 

"And think, this heart, all evil shed away,     
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;     
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,     
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven."

(The Soldier, Rupert Brooke)

 

And shame on those using borrowed or stolen valour, for which Pattaya is particularly infamous.

Or more likely SBS.

[Odysseus123]

6 hours ago, nausea said:

The Brit was most likely an SAS guy, methinks.

 

Nothing changes:

 

"A scrimmage in a Border Station --
A canter down some dark defile --
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!"

(Arithmetic, Kipling)

 

Another poem springs to mind:

 

"And think, this heart, all evil shed away,     
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;     
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,     
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven."

(The Soldier, Rupert Brooke)

 

And shame on those using borrowed or stolen valour, for which Pattaya is particularly infamous.

Rupert Brooke died from septicemia inflicted by a mosquito bite.He never fired a shot "at the foe" in his life.

 

Here is another poem which really does capture it all-in a rather harsh way.

 

'When a Beau goes in..by Gavin Ewart.

 

When a Beau goes in,
Into the drink,
It makes you think,
Because, you see, they always sink
But nobody says "Poor lad"
Or goes about looking sad
Because, you see, it's war,
It's the unalterable law.

Although it's perfectly certain
The pilot's gone for a Burton
And the observer too
It's nothing to do with you
And if they both should go
To a land where falls no rain nor hail nor driven snow —
Here, there, or anywhere,
Do you suppose they care?

You shouldn't cry
Or say a prayer or sigh.
In the cold sea, in the dark
It isn't a lark
But it isn't Original Sin —
It's just a Beau going in.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2018 by Odysseus123

[cookieqw]

14 hours ago, Daveyh said:

 

Amen to that! .................... especially all the wanna be's in uniform here with embelishments they have never earned or had the balls to earn in an earlier life. 

amen to that 2

[evadgib]

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/fatalities/sergeant-matt-tonroe-has-been-killed-in-action-in-the-middle-east