US identifies soldier killed destroying downed Iranian drone in Iraq

Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton died during controlled detonation, bringing total of US personnel killed in war to 17 The US military has identified an army soldier killed recently during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq as Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton, of Fayetteville, North Carolina. According to a press release from the US defense department on Tuesday morning, the 30-year-old Swinton was supporting overseas contingency operations in Iraq – and he was “killed in action during a controlled detonation of a downed One-Way Unmanned Aerial System” on Saturday at Erbil airbase in northern Iraq. The announcement follows the identification a day earlier of two other soldiers killed during the US war with Iran. First Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, died in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks, the department said. The latest deaths brings to 17 the number of US service personnel killed in the war, which began in February with US military strikes on Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. Hundreds of service members have been injured, including nearly 100