A U.S. service member was killed by an improvised explosive device in northern Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The service member was killed near Ayn Issa, roughly 35 miles northwest of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa. The death marks the first time a U.S. service member has been killed in the country since a contingent of Special Operations forces were deployed there in October 2015.
“The entire counter-coalition sends its condolences to this hero’s, family, friends and teammates,” said Lt. Gen Stephen Townsend, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. “On this Thanksgiving please be thankful there are service members willing to take up the fight to protect our homeland from hateful and brutal ideology.”
The service member’s name has not yet been released.
There are roughly 500 U.S. troops in Syria, mostly operating in a support role to a coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that the SDF had begun initial operations to retake Raqqa.
