Islamic State militants killed a U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq on Tuesday after blasting through Kurdish defenses and overrunning a town in the biggest offensive in the area for months, officials said.
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Defense Secretary Ashton Carter described the fatality as a “combat death” that highlights the dangers American troops face in Iraq, even though they are not engaged in direct fighting with the Islamic State.
Speaking about the casualty, Carter said in Stuttgart, Germany, that the combat death is “a very sad loss”. He was killed by “direct fire” after Islamic State forces penetrated the Peshmerga’s forward line.
An American serviceman has been killed in combat in Iraq, officials said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a US military official in Iraq said the American was killed while performing his duty as an adviser to the Kurdish peshmerga troops.
Since 2014, three US service members have been killed in the war against ISIS.
But U.S. officials acknowledge that the military gains against ISIS are not enough.
Earlier Tuesday it was widely reported that USA and coalition aircraft were supporting forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) north of Mosul. “Our thoughts and prayers are with that service member’s family”.
The SEAL was killed by direct fire while visiting a Kurdish position that came under attack, the US official said.
In announcing the latest deployment of 217 US troops, the Pentagon said it was loosening the restrictions it had placed on the advisers, a change that could put them closer to the battlefield.
Peshmerga forces, backed by Christian fighters and coalition airstrikes, have regained control of the northern town of Tel Skuf, 30 kilometers north of Mosul, Kurdish officer Shirzad Zakholi told Anadolu Agency.
In mid-April the United States announced plans to send an additional 200 troops to Iraq, and put them closer to the front lines of battle to advise Iraqi forces in the war against ISIS.
In March, US Marine Staff Sgt Louis Cardin was killed in a rocket attack by IS while providing force protection fire support at a coalition firebase near Makhmour, south-west of Mosul, that had only become operational a few days earlier.
A Defense official told ABC News that ISIS used truck bombs to break through Peshmerga lines located about 17 miles north of the ISIS-held city of Mosul.
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A special operations soldier was killed in a firefight in October 2015 during a raid on an IS prison in Iraq.
