FORWARD OPERATING BASE LAGMAN, Afghanistan — From March until Sunday, members of Task Force Warrior operated in regions with some of the heaviest concentration of Taliban fighters without losing a single servicemember in combat.
In the past two days, they’ve lost two.
On Sunday, a soldier was killed in a firefight as he relieved troops standing guard at an outpost in the Deh Chopan district of Zabul province.
On Monday, a soldier from Company B was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade during an ambush that occurred while his unit cleared a riverbed in Tarin Kot district in nearby Uruzgan province.
Maj. Rafael Paredes, executive officer for the task force, said six other soldiers were wounded in the attack, two severely. U.S. officials reported that five other servicemembers received minor injuries.
Names of the troops killed in the two incidents are being withheld until their families are notified.
Task Force Warrior and members of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry are scheduled to transfer authority of this province to NATO forces by the end of the month. They have spent most of the last few weeks working with the Afghan National Army to bolster their defenses by handing over a series of bases and outposts to Afghan control.
Word about the second death spread quickly around base Monday night, fueling rumors of retaliatory action and other ambushes in the region, but none proved true.
Information on the number of enemy soldiers killed or wounded in the attacks was not available.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials reported that operations against Taliban militants in Helmand province continue around the cities of Sangin, Musa Qala and Baghran.