25-Year-Old Airman Found Dead in Her Room in UAE

An Air Force lieutenant who was sent to the United Arab Emirates to help take on the Islamic State has died at the age of 25, the Miami Herald reports. The Air Force Times IDs her as 1st Lt. Anais A. Tobar, per a Department of Defense press release, which notes she died on Monday of a "non-combat-related injury." The release didn't indicate either the cause of death nor where in the UAE it took place; an Air Force spokesperson says her body was found in her room. Tobar was assigned to the 4th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron based at North Carolina's Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and had been deployed in Abu Dhabi to help out with Operation Inherent Resolve, which leads targeted operations against ISIS.

Tobar was born in Venezuela and grew up in Florida, spending much of her youth in Miami and attending Osceola High School in Kissimmee before heading off to Florida State University. After a stint in the Air Force Reserve in high school, Tobar fully enlisted in the Air Force to "see the world," family friend Mercy McGee tells the Orlando Sentinel, adding to the Herald, "There are not enough words to tell you what a loving and wonderful girl she was. She was God-fearing, deeply devoted to serving others and her country." Officials told Tobar's family an autopsy would be done once Tobar's body was brought back to the US, McGee notes. (More obituary stories.)