Hansen Kirkpatrick, US Army Private Killed In Afghanistan, 7 Other Military Fatalities In 2017

A U.S. soldier was killed and two others were injured in an indirect fire against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said in a statement Wednesday.

The soldier was identified as 19-year-old Private Hansen B. Kirkpatrick from Wasilla, Alaska. He was a part of the 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. While Kirkpatrick succumbed to his injuries, the wounds of the other two soldiers were not considered life-threatening, the military said.

Read: More US Ground Troops In Afghanistan? Mattis Says Taliban ‘Surging’ In War-Torn Country

Kirkpatrick was killed in the southern province of Helmand, one of the centers where the fight with Taliban forces is said to be extremely fierce. He was a part of a counterterrorism unit that was carrying out a mission in Nawa district.

The Private died during efforts by Afghan commandos, supported by American air power and Special Operations Forces, to target Taliban fighters who were preparing to launch further attacks on Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, according to multiple reports.

Kirkpatrick became the eighth American service member to die in Afghanistan so far this year, according to iCasualties, the military's casualty reporting website. In June, three soldiers– Sergeant Eric Houck, Sergeant William Bays, and Corporal Dillon Baldridge– were killed while another one was wounded after an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan. Three more casualties were reported in April, with two of them reported from eastern Afghanistan where the U.S. forces were fighting a small but destructive Islamic State (ISIS) group cell. A Staff Sergeant, Mark De Alencar, was the only casualty reported in March and the first this year.

The seven casualties reported before Kirkpatrick were involved in the fight against the local branch of ISIS. The U.S. military claimed that hundreds of forces have been killed by joint Afghan-American forces since March.

Around 8,800 U.S. troops are currently serving in Afghanistan in the post-2015 phase, serving a dual mission of training and advising Afghan forces against a resurgent Taliban and ISIS. The U.S. troops are carrying out counterterrorism missions in the country. Already eight U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in 2017, while a total of 14 deaths were reported in 2016 and 22 in 2015. The war lasted almost thirteen years, making it the longest war in the U.S. history before it formally ended in 2014. More than half of the U.S. troops were pulled out after the end of the war.

Read: Three US Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan In An Inside Attack

However, in June 2017, President Donald Trump allowed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to send 4,000 additional troops to the country for the NATO-led Operation Resolute Support. It is a mission to train and advise the troops serving in the country. The move sought to address assertions by Gen John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan. Nicholson said he did not have enough forces to help Afghanistan’s army against a resurgent Taliban insurgency, especially after the recent attack in Kabul in May. In February, he acknowledged the Taliban has gained territory across the country in 2016 and the Afghans have “tens of thousands” of absent or nonexistent Afghan soldiers on their payrolls. He described the current situation in Afghanistan as a "stalemate," according to reports.

The eight U.S. soldiers who were a part of the Operation Iraqi Freedom died in Iraq in 2017, iCasualties also reported. In 2016, the number was higher, with 17 deaths being reported. The Operation Iraqi Freedom mission was announced by former President George W.Bush in 2003 to free Iraq from its tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein.