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'He Wanted to Fight for His Country': US Soldier Killed in Noncombat-Related Incident in Iraq

CBN

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A U.S. soldier died while supporting the anti-Islamic State coalition in Iraq, the Department of Defense confirmed to CBN News Wednesday.

The solider has been identified as Spc. Javion Shavonte Sullivan of Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Pentagon officials say Sullivan died Monday in Iraq's Al Anbar province in a noncombat-related incident and his death is under investigation.

He joined the Army to "make a better life for his family, fight for his country," Patricia Hackett, the soldier's aunt, told local Fox 21 News in South Carolina. "It was just something he wanted to do."

The 24-year-old was married to the love of his life, Rayven, who he had been with for more than a decade, his aunt said. The couple's daughter Mahogany, 3, will carry on Sullivan's loving spirit, she said.

"He's gone, but looking at her, she's his twin," she said. "We will always see Javion in Mahogany."

Sullivan is the first U.S. service member to die while supporting the anti-ISIS campaign this year, and the 22nd since Operation Inherent Resolve began in the fall of 2014.

Over the past three years of fighting, ISIS has lost nearly all the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria.

According to the latest statistics from the Pentagon, about 1,000 fighters are now operating in small cells in the desert near the Iraqi-Syrian border and in some of the cities that security forces have retaken and are continuing to clear and secure.


 

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