WASHINGTON _ The U.S. military is investigating whether friendly fire killed two Army Rangers during an operation this week to seize an Islamic State leader in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Friday.
There are "some initial indications" that either fellow U.S. troops or Afghan forces fighting with them may have struck the two soldiers by accident in a battle with Islamic State militants early Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said.
He said there were "no indications it was (an) intentional" attack by Afghan partners _ a frequent cause in recent years of casualties among Western forces.
"War is a very difficult thing. In the heat of battle, in the fog of war, the possibility always exists for friendly fire, and that may have been what happened here," he said.
Davis said that the families of the two Rangers had been notified that they may have died from friendly fire.
The Rangers killed were Sgts. Cameron Thomas, 23, of Kettering, Ohio, and Joshua Rodgers, 22, of Bloomington, Ill. A third U.S. service member was wounded in the head. This month, Army Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Md., was killed by small-arms fire in the same province.
The mission focused on Afghan emir Abdul Haseeb, leader of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said. It targeted an Islamic State compound about a mile from where the U.S. dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb this month on a tunnel complex used by militants.
Several senior leaders of Islamic State in Afghanistan and 35 of the group's operatives were killed in the raid, but the Pentagon could not confirm Friday that Haseeb was among them.
Fifty Army rangers and 40 Afghan commandos were dropped into the area by helicopter for the operation, Pentagon officials said. Within a few minutes of landing, they "came under intense fire from multiple directions and well-prepared fighting positions," according to a statement from U.S. Forces Afghanistan. They called in support from an AC-130 gunship, F-16 fighter jets, drones and Apache helicopters, Davis said.
"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," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement Friday. "They carried out their operation against (Islamic State) in Afghanistan before making the ultimate sacrifice. ... Our nation owes them an irredeemable debt."
There are about 1,000 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar province. Some military analysts question the U.S. military's decision to focus on the group while the much more numerous Taliban are retaking parts of the country.
