U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan identified

[September 07, 2019]  (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier killed by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan has been identified as Army Sgt. 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz of Puerto Rico, the Department of Defense said on Friday.

Barreto, 34 and based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was killed on Thursday when an improvised bomb in a vehicle exploded in a suicide attack near his vehicle in the Afghan capital Kabul, the department said in a statement.

Barreto was a paratrooper and maintenance control sergeant in the 82nd Brigade Support Battalion.

A Romanian soldier also died in the attack near a neighborhood in Kabul that housed embassy staff from the United States and other countries, the Army Times reported on its website.

The incident is under investigation, the department said.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Darren Schuettler)
 

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