WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A 42-year-old decorated Navy sailor has been identified as the first U.S. service member to be killed in combat in Syria, the Department of Defense said.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Cooper Dayton, of Woodbridge, Va., was killed by an improvised bomb blast near Ayn Issa in northern Syria on Thursday, officials said. He was working as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the joint task force against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and was assigned to a mobile bomb-disposal unit based in Virginia Beach, Va.