Doug Stanglin

USATODAY

The Pentagon said Friday that two U.S. Army Rangers killed in a night raid against an Islamic State compound in Afghanistan this week may have died from friendly fire.

Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, 22, of Bloomington, Ill., and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, of Kettering, Ohio, died of injuries sustained at the outset of a three-hour firefight late Wednesday in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. They died after being medevaced out of the area. Both were assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Benning, Ga.

The raid near the Afghan-Pakistan border targeted a compound used by Abdul Hasid, the emir of ISIS Khorasan, the terrorist group's Afghan branch.

2 U.S. troops killed in anti-ISIS operation in Afghanistan

"The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice," Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Fifty Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos inserted near the compound by helicopter and conducted the raid, the Pentagon said. The operation included airstrikes by drones, AC-130 and Apache gunships and F-16 fighter jets.

"Within a few minutes of landing, our combined force came under intense fire from multiple directions and well-prepared fighting positions," the statement said. "Nevertheless, our forces successfully closed on the enemy, killed several high-level ISIS-K leaders and upwards of 35 fighters."

U.S. Forces Afghanistan said in a statement that it is "is investigating the possibility that the two Rangers were accidentally killed by friendly fire." The statement said the two men's families have been notified of the possibility.

The statement said the death of the emir and his associates, if confirmed, "will significantly degrade ISIS-K operations in Afghanistan and help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017."

The incident raises the death toll of American servicemen killed in combat in Afghanistan this year to three and highlights the emerging threat of the Islamic State in the country.