Litchfield soldier killed in Afghanistan
A 20-year-old Army private from Litchfield in central Minnesota has been killed in Afghanistan.
Jonathan Yanney was killed by an improvised explosive device on August 18.
His father, Russ Yanney, said in a Myspace message that his son was on the road in southern Afghanistan, en route to help a unit under fire in the field.
The blast also killed another soldier, specialist Troy Tom, of Shiprock, New Mexico.
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Both men were members of the 5th Stryker Brigade, based at Washington State's Fort Lewis. The 4,000 member unit deployed to Afghanistan this summer as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The two were killed just hours before polls opened for the Afghan election last week. The explosion that killed them was part of an uptick in violence that preceded the election.
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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Jonathan Yanney's first name.