Mattis on recent US military deaths: ‘They’re not part of a life-insurance corporation’

A US Navy SEAL was killed and two other special-operations troops were wounded while advising and assisting a Somali-led mission about 40 miles west of the country’s capital earlier this month.

The SEAL, 38-year-old Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Kyle Milliken, was the first American to die in combat in Somalia since 1993.

The mission he was attached to came under fire during a mission against extremist group al-Shabab.

Milliken’s death came just a few weeks after dozens of regular US troops were deployed to the country, and his presence in the country was part of a special-operations and counterterrorism deployment the US has dispatched to Somalia in recent years.

Milliken’s death comes after several others that took place during counterterrorism operations, including the April 29 death of a US Army platoon leader in Mosul, the April 8 death of a US Army Green Beret in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, and the January 28 death of a Navy SEAL during an operation in Yemen.

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Featured image courtesy of Reuters