(AP) -- DENVER (AP) -- Military officials said a soldier from Denver and a soldier from Texas have died in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense said 19-year-old Pfc. Payton A. Jones, of Marble Falls, Texas, and 25-year-old Staff Sgt. Jordan L. Bear of Denver, died Thursday in Kandahar province of wounds from small arms fire during an attack on their base.

Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg, N.C.

U.S. and Afghan officials had said Thursday that two soldiers were killed on a joint U.S.-Afghan base in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province by two Afghan soldiers and an Afghan civilian literacy instructor who fired from a sentry tower.

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