Pentagon: Two US service members killed fighting ISIS in Afghanistan

On Thursday two U.S. Army Rangers were killed and a third incurred minor injuries during a battle against Islamic State fighters in their stronghold in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, according to the U.S. military.

In February, the top United States commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson said he needed a few thousand more worldwide troops to break a “stalemate” with the Taliban.

A Pentagon spokesperson said the USA troops were operating with Afghan National Defense and Security Forces when they were attacked in Nangarhar Province, where the US recently dropped the “mother of all bombs” on an ISIS tunnel system.

Earlier this month, US forces in Afghanistan dropped a 22,000-pound guided bomb called a GBU-43 on an Islamic State tunnel complex in Nangahar, the first use of a weapon of its kind.

Mullah Mansoor was killed in a U.S. drone strike while travelling in a auto in Balochistan in May 2016.

“I will say we were sending a very clear message to ISIS, not only to ISIS here in Afghanistan but also ISIS main”, Nicholson.

Commander of USA and foreign forces in the country, General John Nicholson, while speaking alongside Mattis, reiterated concerns over Russia’s involvement in the Afghan conflict and expressed Washington’s concern that Moscow is apparently sending weapons to the Taliban.

That report said that the Afghan government had control or influence over only 52 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts a year ago, down from 63.4 percent previously.

Last week, a Taliban attack on an Afghan army base in Balkh province left 140 Afghan soldiers dead and another 160 wounded.

Some U.S. officials question the benefit of sending more troops to Afghanistan. There have been 1,835 American troops killed in action since USA -led invasion in late 2001. Currently, 8,400 US personnel are in Afghanistan to council local forces on how to fight against ISIS and other militant groups.

“Is the goal to decisively defeat [the Taliban] and make Afghanistan into a viable state (or) is the goal to continue to prop up the government of Afghanistan?” They are largely conducting a training, advise and assist mission aimed at supporting Afghan forces.

Bullet holes are seen on the wall of a mosque at the military headquarters where the Taliban attack occurred last week in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan April 25, 2017.