A fourth U.S. service member died from injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, the U.S. Department of Defense said on Monday, December 3.
Sergeant Jason Mitchell McClary, 24, from Pennsylvania, died on December 2 at a military hospital from injuries sustained in the November 27 blast in the Andar district of Ghazni.
McClary was assigned to 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado
Three other service members – Army Captain Andrew Patrick Ross, Army Sergeant First Class Eric Michael Emond, and Air Force Staff Sergeant Dylan J. Elchin – were killed in the explosion and three other service members, including McClary, and a civilian contractor were wounded.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with its spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid tweeting that the militants targeted the U.S. “invaders.”
McClary’s death brings to 14 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year. The Ghazni attack came just days after 25-year-old U.S. Army Sergeant Leandro A.S. Jasso was killed in what what the NATO Resolute Support mission said was an accidental shooting.
An initial review of the November 24 incident found that Jasso was accidentally shot by an Afghan partner force during a close-quarter battle with al-Qaeda in Nimruz province, the NATO mission announced Tuesday.
On November 3, Major Brent Taylor of the Utah National Guard was killed in an insider attack in Kabul.
Taylor served with the Special Operations Joint Task Force in Afghanistan and was due to return home in January.
Less than two weeks earlier, a Czech service member with the Resolute Support mission was killed in an insider attack in Herat province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the October 22 incident, saying an “infiltrator” working at the Shindand airbase in the province opened fire on troops.
The New York Times reported last week that U.S. and Czech forces are currently under investigation after Wahidullah Khan, the Afghan commando accused of killing Corporal Tomáš Procházka, was beaten to death in custody.