[Photo: Officials remove the wreckage of police wehicle from the scene after a bomb attack killing three people, including two policemen, in Kolpak region in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, on December 27,2015. Photgrapher: Abdul Hadi Roshan/AA]
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WASHINGTON (AA) – One U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan in a Taliban retaliation attack, according to the Pentagon.
“We are deeply saddened by this loss,” Brig. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner said in a statement. “On behalf of Gen. Campbell and all of USFOR-A, our heart-felt sympathies go out to the families and friends of those involved,” he added, referring to the American troops Afghanistan.
The military declined to release the identity of the service member killed pending next-of-kin notification. Two other U.S. service members were wounded in the attack near Marjah in Helmand province.
Defense officials told NBC News that Special Operations Forces were involved in a counter-terrorism operation when they were attacked.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed the group had also shot down a U.S. transport helicopter in Helmand.
A U.S. official told the news outlet that a “medevac chopper called in to recover casualties then came under mortar and small-arms fire” but declined to confirm if the helicopter was hit by Taliban fire.
Two HH-60 Pave Hawk Medevac helicopters were sent to provide assistance, according to Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook.
“One of them were waived off after taking fire and returned safely to its base, the second landed safely but sustained damage to its rotor blades after it apparently struck a wall. That helicopter remains on the ground,” he said, adding that Defense Secretary Ash Carter has spoken to commanders on the ground about the situation.
Cook said the fight is still ongoing and some American forces may still be in danger.