The St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday afternoon that an airman assigned to MacDill AFB, Fla., has died from injuries sustained by an improvised explosive device outside of Baghdad Tuesday local time. The newspaper cites a US military spokeswoman as confirming the airman’s death. The airman’s name is being withheld pending notification of the family, it said. MacDill is home to the 6th Air Mobility Wing as well as US Special Operations Command. According to an Associated Press report earlier on Tuesday, a total of four US servicemen—apparently including this airman—died in two separate IED attacks in Iraq Tuesday local time.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.