A coalition service member deployed in support of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan was killed in the Herat province on Monday, officials announced.
- Officials have not yet announced the service member’s nationality, but Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Robert Manning told reporters on Monday that he was not American.
- Initial reports indicate the attack “was committed by a member of the Afghan security forces,” officials said.
- Two other Resolute Support service members were wounded in the incident. Manning declined to say which country those service members are from.
- “Out of respect for that nation and their next of kin notification process, we’re not going to release the names or the nationality,” Manning said. “We’re going to respect that nation and their process.”
- Resolute Support officials declined to provide further details regarding the service members involved, deferring to the “appropriate national authorities” to release identifying information.
- The incident comes on the heels of a devastating Oct. 18 insider attack in the Kandahar that left the province’s top Afghan leadership dead and a U.S. general wounded.
- When asked why the Pentagon initially did not announced that Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley had been wounded in the attack, Manning explained that Defense Department is not responsible for releasing the names of wounded personnel.
- “We leave that to the discretion of the commander on the ground or the service,” Manning said. “In this instance, the unit on the ground – U.S Forces-Afghanistan and Operation Resolute Support – determined that they were not going to release the name of the wounded. We did not divert from policy on that.”
More to come…
