The Pentagon has identified a soldier killed Thursday in an enemy attack in southeastern Afghanistan.

Spc. Brian K. Arsenault, 28, of Northborough, Mass., died from his injuries after his unit came under attack with small-arms fire in Ghazni province, according to a Defense Department release. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 504th Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Arsenault is the fourth U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan in the past month and the second from the 1-504. Sgt. 1st Class Samuel C. Hairston, 35, of Houston, Tex., also of the 1-504, died Aug. 12 in Ghazni province following an enemy attack with small-arms fire. Sgt. 1st Class Matthew I. Leggett, 39, of Ruskin, Fla., was stabbed to death in Kabul on Aug. 20. His attacker was arrested by Afghan police.

Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, 55, was fatally shot by an Afghan soldier while visiting a military academy on the outskirts of Kabul on Aug. 5. His death was the first of a general officer in an overseas attack since the Vietnam War.

Roughly 44,000 international troops remain in Afghanistan — nearly 30,000 of them Americans — as the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force approaches the end of its combat mission this year. Plans call for a residual training and advising force of about 15,000 troops to remain after 2014, pending agreements between the government and NATO.

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