Former US professional football star Pat Tillman, who gave up a $3.6 million sports contract to join the military's elite special forces, has been killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, US officials said yesterday.

The officials, who asked not to be identified, said Tillman was killed on Thursday in an intense firefight in southeastern Afghanistan as his Army Ranger unit hunted for al Qaeda and Taliban guerillas.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.