Pentagon identifies US soldier killed in Syria

The Pentagon on Thursday identified the U.S. soldier killed in a vehicle rollover accident in Syria earlier this week.

Sgt. Bryan Cooper Mount, 25, from St. George, Utah, died Tuesday while completing reconnaissance operations in Eastern Syria as part of the operation to defeat ISIS. The incident is under investigation, according to a press release.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman, the deputy commander for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve told reporters Wednesday that a U.S. service member died in a “mishap” while on security patrol. 

“We have no indications that that patrol was anything other than a normal patrol,” Ekman told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon via satellite from Baghdad.

The Operation Inherent Resolve task force said in a Tuesday statement that preliminary evidence indicates “the incident was not due to enemy attack.”

Mount was assigned to 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He became the 10th U.S. fatality supporting Operation Inherent Resolve so far this year.

Operation Inherent Resolve has deployed U.S. troops in Syria to back Kurdish-led troops that are combating ISIS and support the forces with intelligence and equipment.

Ekman told reporters that troops have near-daily contact with Russian troops that back Syrian President Bashar Assad in the area, but he said they “have no indications that any Russian activity existed at the location of the unfortunate loss.”