Three S.C. Guardsmen, including Citadel grad, killed in Afghanistan

A 2004 graduate of The Citadel was among three S.C. National Guard military police killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy in Afghanistan.

At least five other soldiers with the 133rd Military Police Company were wounded.

First Lt. Ryan Rawl, 30, of Lexington, died when a bomb exploded on a busy street in Khost during lunch time. Rawl graduated from The Citadel.

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Thomas, 30, of Easley, and Spc. John Meador II, 36, of Columbia, also died.

Khost is in the far eastern part of the country, about 90 miles southeast of Kabul, at the foot of the mountains along the Pakistan border. The company, based in Timmonsville, is training Afghan Uniformed Police.

The bomber detonated the charge as he approached Afghan and U.S. soldiers in a packed marketplace. The attack killed 21 people in all, said Baryalai Wakman, Khost provincial government spokesman.

The three soldiers killed were among 300 to 400 S.C. National Guard troops now deployed, according to the Guard.

The unit deployed 170 soldiers in November 2011 and was due to return home in August.

The deaths were the first in Afghanistan for the South Carolina guard since October 2010.

Read more in tomorrow’s Post and Courier.