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Defense Department officials on Friday identified the seventh member of the US service killed in Afghanistan this year as Sunday marking the 17th anniversary of the longest war in America.
US Army Specialist James A. Slape, 23, of Morehead City, North Carolina, was fatally injured Thursday as he was working to clean up a zone of improvised explosive devices after the explosion of a vehicle in the Afghan province of Helmand, in the south of the country.
Slape, a specialist in explosive ordnance disposal and ammunition assigned to the 430th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company of the 60th Command of the North Carolina Army National Guard Troops, had departed his vehicle and was working to clear the area when another improvised explosive device exploded, "Debra Richardson, a first-class sergeant and spokesman for NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Kabul, told reporters by email.
Slape "was medically evacuated to a medical facility, but despite brave efforts to save him, his injuries were fatal," said Richardson. Slape was promoted posthumously to Sergeant Specialist.
Aged 23, he joined the National Guard for the first time in 2013 and completed the Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Course in 2015. He was deployed with his unit in April and was scheduled to return home. in the spring of 2019, said Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew DeVivo, a spokesman for the National Guard of North Carolina.
"We are crying and honoring the sacrifice of our military member," said Thursday in a press release the Resolute support and General Scott Miller, US Forces Commander for Afghanistan, in a press release.
A Taliban spokesman took credit for Thursday's blast on social media.
Slape's death marks the seventh combat death in Afghanistan this year for US forces. Another US soldier was killed last month at a non-combat-related event shortly after Miller took command of the US advisory mission of some 14,000 US forces currently assigned to the US-led coalition. NATO led by the United States last month.
Miller succeeded Gen. John Nicholson, the longest-serving commander of NATO's forces in Afghanistan. Last month, Nicholson told audience members in Kabul that Afghans must stop killing their fellow citizens while he urged the Taliban to negotiate a peace deal between the US government and the government. Afghan.
"Make no mistake: until you're ready to start talking, we'll continue to fight," Nicholson said last month.
The Trump administration tried to negotiate a peace treaty between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but the dialogue stopped because the Taliban want a complete withdrawal of US forces.
Peace talks could be held in Moscow when the Kremlin announced in August that its country was seeking to resolve the long-standing conflict between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but no official date has been set for these meetings.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, US General Joseph Votel, commander of the US-based Central Command, based in Tampa, Florida, spoke by phone with reporters at the Pentagon.
US Central Command has jurisdiction over Afghanistan, as well as other Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Votel said Afghan casualties were "an important area" as Afghan national security forces in the army and police suffered significant losses on the battlefield after a "difficult and bloody summer" which ended on September 23rd.
Votel did not specify the number of Afghan soldiers killed this year, but said the number of casualties was increasing, but that "the Afghans are staying."
The US military command in Kabul does not publicly publish the number of Afghan victims at the request of the Afghan government.
"What we are trying to do is make sure that the Afghans are using their strengths so as not to unnecessarily expose them to these kinds of incidents causing many casualties," Votel said. "One of the ways we are trying to do that is to reduce their reliance on those remote, poorly defended, hard-to-support and maintain checkpoints that they have in various parts of the country. political and military leaders as well as our field advisors to help reduce this problem. "
Last month, the top soldier enlisted in the US military's latest brigade of advisers deployed to Afghanistan was killed in an attack by an internal threat.
The US Army Command Sergeant Major, Timothy A. Bolyard, 42, of Thornton, West Virginia, was on his 13th overseas deployment when he was there. was killed at Forward Operating Base Shank, located in Logar Province, in the east of the country.
The highly decorated soldier, who received the Bronze Star – the fourth highest military figure in the country – six times, was killed after two Afghan policemen opened fire on Bolyard, killing him and injuring another. American soldier. The shooting of September remains under investigation.
Sunday marks the 17th anniversary of the country's first entry into Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Since then, more than 2,250 Americans have been killed and 130 others have been killed while supporting the war. Nearly 21,000 people were injured during the longest war in America.
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