U.S. soldier killed in Iraq during controlled explosion of Iranian drone named as Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton

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Updated on: July 21, 2026 / 9:39 AM EDT

/ CBS News

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A 30-year-old U.S. soldier was killed over the weekend in Iraq during what the U.S. military said was a controlled explosion to destroy an attack drone. Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was "killed in action during a controlled detonation" of the drone at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday.The statement made no mention of the projectile being Iranian, but a bulletin from U.S. Central Command on Sunday said it was a "downed Iranian one-way attack drone."The incident remains under investigation. The U.S. military said Swinton was killed Sunday, but the CENTCOM bulletin said he died Saturday. CENTCOM said a second service member was wounded in the same incident and treated for what it called a "minor injury."In remarks to reporters on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the troops "were decommissioning ammunition and an accident happened in that process and they were harmed," without giving further details.