ISIS in Afghanistan Captures US Army Ranger Gear

The Islamic State appears to have captured gear used by the United States military, according to recent reports and pictures posted on Twitter. The items may have belonged to heat casualties from a recent 75th Ranger Regiment operation in Afghanistan.According to Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, the equipment was lost while soldiers moved a Casualty Collection Point (CCP) to a different location after it came under fire.The equipment includes 40mm ammunition, at least one radio, a LAAW 60mm anti-tank weapon, rifle magazines, packs with tourniquets attached to them, and more.The theory that the items belong to members of the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment is further bolstered by the identification card held up in the pictures—the common access card of a Specialist Ryan Jay Larson.Specialist Larson has been accounted for, according to Brigadier General Cleveland.

The pictures were posted in English by SITE Intel Group on Twitter. The pictures originated from Nangarhar Province, where U.S. Army Rangers recently conducted a large-scale operation.According to unverified reports on Facebook and reporting by Special Operations oriented-website SOFREP, the gear appears to belong to members of the United States Army’s elite 75^th Ranger Regiment.SOFREP claims that Larson was indeed a US Army Ranger, a member of 3/75, and went down as a heat casualty on a recent, ill-planned operation. The gear may have been left behind due to not having enough Rangers on the ground to carry all of it out.This is corroborated by a post on the Facebook page U.S. Army WTF Moments, which, although the author is anonymous, claims the same thing: a poorly planned operation, confounded by multiple heat casualties, and few Rangers left combat effective. The sources above claim multiple ISIS casualties with zero friendly KIA.According to SOFREP’s Jack Murphy, a U.S. Army Ranger veteran, the Regiment discontinued carrying identification cards on operations due to the sensitive nature of their personal information. Why Specialist Larson was carrying his CAC card that day has not yet been made clear.The SITE Intelligence Group, which published the pictures, specializes in monitoring ISIS and other terrorist groups. It says the photographs were originally published by the Amaq news agency, which is an arm of the Islamic State.

#ISIS 'Amaq posted photos of documents and gear of #American soldiers allegedly taken by ISIS fighters in #Nangarhar pic.twitter.com/UDat7qOFvX

— SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) August 6, 2016