The Department of Defense on Friday released the identity of the American soldier who was killed in Afghanistan Thursday.
Sgt. 1st Class Elis Angel Barreto Ortiz, a 34-year-old paratrooper from Morovis, Puerto Rico, was killed in a car bomb explosion at a checkpoint near NATO headquarters and the United States embassy in Kabul. A Romanian soldier was also killed in the attack.
Barreto was a maintenance control sergeant assigned to the 82nd Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
“With honor and courage, Sgt. 1st Class Barreto answered our nation’s call to deploy and serve in Afghanistan,” Col. Arthur Sellers, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, said in a statement. “In this most difficult time, his loved ones are now surrounded by a community of love and caring by members of our Paratrooper Family Readiness Group.”
“Appalled by the terrorist attack in Afghanistan, in which a Romanian soldier lost his life, the second attack this week resulting in the killing of a Romanian citizen,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said in a tweet Thursday. “Condolences to the families of the victims.”
Barreto enlisted in the military in 2010, and he has received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal, the Army said in a statement.
Barreto is the 16th U.S. service member to be killed in Afghanistan this year. Three other American soldiers have died in Afghanistan in recent weeks.
The violence comes as the U.S. and the Taliban attempt to reach peace negotiations and end the nearly two-decade long war in Afghanistan.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, returned to Doha, Qatar, earlier this week to continue peace talks with the Taliban. The two sides are reportedly close to reaching a deal that would see the end of U.S. troops stationed in the country.
Khalizad informed Afghanistan’s TOLOnews on Monday that the U.S. and the Taliban have reached a peace deal “in principle,” which President Trump must approve. The conditions outlined in the agreement include the withdrawal of U.S. forces from five bases throughout Afghanistan within 135 days, as long as the Taliban complies to rules set in the deal as well.
