The Pentagon has named a U.S. soldier who died on November 24 in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand and confirmed that the soldier had been critically wounded during a firefight against "enemy forces" in a neighboring province.

In a statement issued on November 25, the Pentagon said 25-year-old Army Ranger Sergeant Leandro Jasso sustained his fatal wounds during combat in the Khash Rod district of Nimruz Province.

He died after being evacuated to the Garmsir district of Helmand Province, where U.S. forces operate an expanded forward operations base known as Camp Dwyer and a smaller military installation known as Camp Garmsir.

Jasso was the ninth U.S. soldier to die in Afghanistan in 2018.

Some 14,000 U.S. soldiers are currently serving in Afghanistan, where the United States and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in 2014.

The remaining Western forces mainly train and advise the Afghan security forces, which have been struggling against attacks from a resurgent Taliban and other militant extremist groups.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said earlier in November that 58 Americans had been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2015 when Afghan troops took over primary responsibility for Afghanistan’s security.

During the same period since the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops from Afghanistan, Ghani said nearly 29,000 Afghan police and soldiers have been killed -- a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged by the government in Kabul.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and dpa