Pvt. Michael Thomason
The US-led coalition against ISIS announced on April 30 that a U.S. service member has died in a noncombat incident in northern Syria.
The coalition’s official statement says that Pvt. Michael Thomason, 28, from southwest Detroit lost his live on April 29, without providing any further details. However, Thomason’s family said that “he had been shot and killed,” according to the local WXYZ TV.
Thomason’s death resurfaced on the news on May 1, when several Kurdish sources and Western activists close to the US-bacekd Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) claimed that the U.S. soldier was killed by the Turkish military.
According to these sources, Thomason’s vehicle was targeted by the Turkish military while it was passing through the area of Zur Maghar near the northern Syrian city of Ayn Arab, commonly known as Kobani.
The sources went on to claim that media outlets affiliated with Turkey released several reports on the eve of April 29 boasting about the attack on the U.S. military vehicle. However, after additional research no such reports were found.
The US-led coalition and the Turkish military have not commented on these accusations, so far. The SDF also hasn’t made any official statement on the matter yet.
It is plausible that the U.S. and Turkey are hiding the incident in order to avoid a diplomatic crisis. However, there is also a good chance that Kurdish forces are making these accusations in order to increase the pressure on Ankara.
