Wife Mourns Soldier Killed in Iraq: 'I Will Never Recover'

A US soldier killed while handling a downed drone in Iraq has now been identified as Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton of Fayetteville, North Carolina. The Pentagon says the 30-year-old was killed in action on Sunday during a controlled detonation at Erbil Air Base, per CBS News. US Central Command had earlier described the device as an Iranian one-way attack drone; a second service member suffered a minor injury.

The incident is under investigation. An air defense specialist who joined the Army in 2017, Swinton served with a Fort Bragg-based air defense artillery unit. He was posthumously promoted to staff sergeant and will receive the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Action Badge. "I will never recover from this, you should be home," his wife, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, wrote on Facebook on Monday, per the AP. "We had so many plans for when you got back, I'm sick to my stomach." His death comes amid a surge in Iran-US clashes that have wounded nearly 100 American troops this month across the Middle East, per CBS.