US soldier from Michigan dies in noncombat incident in Syria

In this photo released by the United States Army, Pfc. Michael A. Thomason, of Lincoln Park, Mich., is shown. Thomason was an infantryman (11B) assigned to 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The military says the 28-year-old U.S. soldier from suburban Detroit has died of wounds sustained from a noncombat incident in Syria. (United States Army via AP)

In this photo released by the United States Army, Pfc. Michael A. Thomason, of Lincoln Park, Mich., is shown. Thomason was an infantryman (11B) assigned to 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The military says the 28-year-old U.S. soldier from suburban Detroit has died of wounds sustained from a noncombat incident in Syria. (United States Army via AP)

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) — The military says a 28-year-old U.S. soldier from suburban Detroit has died of wounds sustained from a noncombat incident in Syria.

The Defense Department says Private First Class Michael A. Thomason of Lincoln Park died Monday in Kobani. Details of the incident weren’t immediately released.

Amber Martinez tells WJBK-TV that her brother joined the Army so he could “help people” and “protect people who can’t protect themselves.”

Martinez says her family was told Thomason died in a shooting. She says she last spoke with him a few days earlier and he was supposed to be on patrol at the time of his death.

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Thomason was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.