The U.S. military has identified a North Carolina soldier killed while disarming an Iranian drone in Iraq as 30-year-old Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton.
Swinton, from Fayetteville, died on Sunday during a controlled detonation at an air base in Irbil, northern Iraq.
The incident is under investigation. He was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg.
Posthumously, Swinton will receive the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Action Badge, and be promoted to staff sergeant, the military announced.
A second service member sustained a minor injury when Swinton was killed and is receiving medical treatment. The military stated it would withhold further information until families had been notified.
His death follows the killing of two U.S. Army soldiers in Jordan on Friday, who were defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.
These marked the first US troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the war's outset.
The Defense Department confirmed the fatalities as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Carrollton, Texas.
Both service members were deployed to support a U.S. mission targeting the Islamic State group.
Iranian authorities claim that U.S. strikes over the past three weeks have resulted in at least 50 deaths and more than 500 injuries, including eight fatalities from a strike on a bridge last Friday.
President Trump is now under political pressure to bring the conflict to a close and avoid the type of prolonged Middle East engagement he had previously campaigned against.
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