(JTA) — A Jewish soldier from the Seattle area was killed in a Taliban attack on a U.S. army base in Afghanistan.
Pvt. Aaron Fairbairn, 21, of Aberdeen, Wash., was killed last Saturday when an insurgent drove a truck full of explosives into the base in eastern Afghanistan and detonated it.
Fairbairn’s stepfather, David Masters, made the news public Saturday using Twitter shortly after receiving the news in a visit by an Army chaplain, according to reports. The Defense Department has not yet released the identities of the two soldiers killed in the attack.
The family had spoken to Fairbairn on Friday, just hours before the attack, according to the Seattle Times.
Masters asked Twitter users to honor Fairbairn by using the term #thankyouaaron, which became the most used term on Twitter late Saturday night.
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