Army Spec. Gabriel D. Conde, 22, was killed in Afghanistan by gunfire April 30, U.S. military officials said. (U.S. Army)

A U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan was hit by gunfire in a district east of Kabul while deployed as part of the Pentagon’s counterterrorism mission, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

Army Spec. Gabriel D. Conde, 22, was an airborne-qualified infantryman with the 25th Infantry Division’s 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and was killed in Kapisa province’s Tagab district, the Pentagon announced. He had been in Afghanistan since September on his first deployment from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

Conde joined the Army in 2015 in Loveland, Colo., and was assigned to Army units in Alaska after going through basic training. His death marked the second U.S. combat death in Afghanistan this year.

U.S. military officials would not clarify on Tuesday Conde’s exact role while deployed, but he was part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, in which the U.S. military targets terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The Pentagon primarily does that through the use of Special Operations troops, but it also uses conventional infantry soldiers such as Conde to bolster security.