US service member killed in Syria identified as 22-year-old from Georgia

It's the third death of a US service member since troops arrived in 2016.

ByABC News
May 27, 2017, 2:55 PM

— -- The U.S. service member who was killed in a vehicle rollover in northern Syria on Friday has been identified as Army Spc. Etienne J. Murphy, from Snellville, Georgia, military authorities said.

Murphy died from injuries sustained during "a nontactical vehicle rollover in the vicinity in northern Syria," according to a statement from Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, the formal name for the military coalition helping to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement Saturday that the incident is under investigation.

Murphy, 22, was born in Boston and enlisted in the Army from his hometown in Georgia in June 2013. He was posthumously awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

The United States has slightly more than 900 military personnel in Syria to advise and assist Kurdish and Arab rebel forces fighting ISIS.

Two other American service members have died in Syria since U.S. troops arrived there in early 2016.

U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, 42, was killed by an improvised explosive device in northern Syria on Nov. 24, 2016.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin L. Bieren, 25, died from suspected natural causes while deployed to northern Syria on March 28.

ABC News' Benjamin Stein contributed to this report.

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