US soldier killed in Afghanistan identified

A US soldier killed by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan has been identified as Army Sgt. 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz of Puerto Rico, the Department of Defence said on Friday.

Barreto, 34 and based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was killed on Thursday when an improvised bomb in a vehicle exploded in a suicide attack near his vehicle in the Afghan capital Kabul, the department said in a statement.

Barreto was a paratrooper and maintenance control sergeant in the 82nd Brigade Support Battalion.

A Romanian soldier also died in the attack near a neighbourhood in Kabul that housed embassy staff from the United States and other countries, the "Army Times" reported on its website.

The incident is under investigation, the department said.

Reuters