A USA service member has been killed in northern Iraq, defense secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday.
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ISIS used multiple vehicles, suicide auto bombs and bulldozers to break through a checkpoint at the front line and drive 3 to 5 kilometers to the Peshmerga base where SEALs are temporarily visiting and were located as advisers, a US defense official told CNN. The warplanes launched 25 airstrikes, officials said.
Former IU student and athlete Charles Keating IV was killed Tuesday morning on a mission in Iraq as a U.S. Navy SEAL, according to an IU release. The militants have lost significant territory in northern and western Iraq in the previous year.
Keating grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. Ducey immediately ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff.
Keating’s grandfather, Charles H. Keating Jr., died at age 90 in 2014. The Pentagon officials confirmed that he died as a result of a “coordinated and complex attack” by roughly 100 ISIS fighters almost 30 km north of Mosul.
Defense Secretary Ash 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. “As many as 30 000 newly displaced individuals may arrive in Makhmur over the coming weeks as the military offensive continues”, the UNHCR said in a statement.
“Our men and women on the ground in Iraq do not have a combat mission, but they do have a unsafe mission to operate in a risky country”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“Like so many fearless Americans who came before him, Charlie sacrificed his life in honorable service to our nation for a cause greater than self-interest, which we can never truly repay”, U.S. Sen.
“The president’s been clear time and time again exactly what their mission is”, he said.
Obama’s policy is to use U.S. troops to train, advise and equip Iraqi and Syrian forces to fight the IS group. “We owe them a deep debt of gratitude”, Earnest said. “But they are in a unsafe situation”. VanDyke pointed out that ISIS militants sent auto bombs every time USA backed-forces tried to advance. It was not clear if any Kurdish forces were killed battling the militants.
Speaking to reporters ahead of engaging talks about campaigns against ISIS in Europe, Defense Secretary Carter reportedly said that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider-al-Abadi still had a strong political foothold despite rising political unrest in Iraq. Sadrists reportedly flooded the heavily fortified “Green Zone” where Iraqi’s government and foreign embassies are located where they protested before withdrawing.
Romeo Hekari, who heads a Christian unit fighting Islamic State under peshmerga command, also said Tal Asquf was back under full control.
It is only the third time a U.S. serviceman has been killed in combat since the United States launched an global coalition to fight the IS group in August 2014.
The Obama administration recently announced that it would send an additional 217 military advisers and support personnel to Iraq, raising the authorized level from 3,870 to 4,087.
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Last year, a USA serviceman died while supporting Kurdish forces during a raid on an Islamic State prison that freed a number of captives.
