Two U.S. Service Members Killed in Mission Against ISIS Have Been Identified

Two U.S. service members were killed during a mission on Sunday. Fox News reported that they were killed by “enemy forces” while “advising and accompanying Iraqi Security Forces during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold in a mountainous area of north-central Iraq,” as said by the U.S. military.

“On the evening of March 8, the U.S.-led Coalition launched additional forces to recover two U.S. service members from the southern Makhmur Mountains in Iraq, approximately 60 km south of Erbil,” said Col. Myles B. Caggins III, coalition military spokesman.

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Their identities were first withheld pending next of kin notification, but they were soon identified as Gunnery Sgt. Diego D. Pongo, 34, of Simi Valley, Calif., and Capt. Moises A. Navas, 34, of Germantown, Md.

According to Marine Corps Times, they were “Marine Raiders partnering with Iraqi Special Forces in a large operation against ISIS,” as said by an unidentified source familiar with the operation.

Their deaths marked the first U.S. troops to be killed in Iraq this year. The last American to be killed in action in Iraq was Marine Raider, Gunnery Sgt. Scott A. Koppenhafer, 35, of Mancos, Colorado in August 2019.

Marine Corps Times reported that, “Since the operation began in 2014, 17 U.S. service members have been killed in action, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System. The two new deaths bring the total to 19 troops killed.”