The Defense Department said two U.S. service members were killed in action in Afghanistan on Friday while they were conducting an operation in the war-torn nation.
Their names will not be released for another 24 hours, after their families have been notified.
The announcement from NATO’s Operation Resolute Support — the American-led international coalition fighting in Afghanistan — did not provide any details about where in Afghanistan the operation had been conducted.
The two deaths bring the number of U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan in 2019 to a total of four. An Army Ranger and an Airborne special forces member were killed by small arms fire in separate combat missions in Afghanistan in January.
Sgt. Cameron A. Meddock died in Landstuhl, Germany on Jan. 17, as a result of injuries sustained during combat operations a few days earlier in the Badghis Province of Afghanistan. Meddock had been assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. He was a 26-year-old from Spearman, Texas.
Staff Sgt. Joshua Z. Beale died in Afghanistan on Jan. 22, as a result of injuries sustained during combat operations in the Uruzgan Province of Afghanistan. Beale had been assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was a 32-year-old from Carrollton, Virginia.
More than 2,400 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 20,000 have been wounded in Afghanistan since combat operations began there in October of 2001, following the terrorist attacks of September 11.
There are currently around 14,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, and they are helping train the Afghan National Army and other members of the Afghan Armed Forces. The U.S. also carries out counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other terrorist elements that have found safe haven in the country.
The U.S. government — led by U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad — has been engaged in monthslong negotiations with Taliban representatives in Qatar. The Afghan government has been excluded from these discussions at the request of the Taliban, to their great frustration.
