US service member killed in action in Afghanistan, NATO Resolute Support says

A U.S. service member was killed in action in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Monday September 16, NATO’s Resolute Support mission said.

Resolute Support did not give additional details due to U.S. Department of Defense policy to withhold information until 24 hours after family notification is complete.

U.S. Army Special Operations Command on Tuesday identified the service member as Green Beret Sergeant 1st Class Jeremy W. Griffin.

Griffin, 41, was killed by small arms fire in Wardak province on September 16, Special Operations Command spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Loren Bymer said Tuesday.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004 and previously served with the the 82nd Airborne Division and 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) prior to attending and graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course in 2014, Bymer said. He then served as a Special Forces communications sergeant to 3rd Battalion, 1st SFG (A) at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Washington.

Griffin was on his fourth combat deployment. He deployed to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2009 and 2016. He also served in Korea on an overseas rotation last year.

Griffin was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart.

Griffin is the 17th American killed in Afghanistan this year.

On September 5, one American and one Romanian service member were killed in Kabul. A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province on August 29. Two U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed in combat operations in Faryab province just days earlier on August 21, and three American forces were killed in Uruzgan and Faryab provinces in July.

Also in July a Croatian soldier serving with Resolute Support NATO Afghanistan was killed and two others seriously wounded in a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul.