Sergeant Matt Tonroe, before becoming a member of the elite Special Air Service (SAS), was trained as a sniper and paratrooper. He successfully completed the notoriously challenging SAS selection and reinforcement cycle. His death during the operation in Syria forced the British government to acknowledge the presence of British Special Operations Forces (SOF) within Syrian territory publicly. Prior to this, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) had maintained that British forces were restricted to Iraq’s borders. This “limitation” was largely symbolic due to the ill-defined nature of the border between Syria and Iraq, and it was seen as a way to shield the British government from potential political backlash over having troops deployed inside Syria.

SOFREP originally wrote up that story and set the record straight here.

We reported:

While approaching their objective, Sergeant Dunbar, who was serving as a breacher, set off an IED that detonated explosives he was carrying on his person. Sergeant Tonroe and five other friendlies were caught in the blast, which resulted in the death of the SAS operator.

This is not how one usually thinks of a friendly fire incident, but technically that is what happened.

Both men died a warrior’s death, taking the fight to the enemy.