A US service member has been killed near Irbil, Iraq, Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed on Tuesday.
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Reuters, citing a USA defense official, reported later Tuesday that the American was a Navy SEAL.
This was the second US combat death in Iraq this year.
The Pentagon said that the Peshmerga position was “approximately three to five kilometers behind the forward line of troops”.
However, Obama acknowledged that the USA troops are “in harm’s way”, saying that same month, “I don’t want to downplay the fact that they’re in a war environment and there are hostile forces on the other side”. “Americans are at risk today every single day here”.
Tuesday’s was the third USA combat death in Iraq in the past seven months.
He made no mention of two post-Cold War developments that many believe prompted, at least in part, Russia’s turn away from the West, namely, the expansion of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to Russia’s very doorstep and USA placement of missile defenses in Europe. The U.S. also has committed to sending more mobile artillery as part of that effort and to providing up to $415 million in support of the Kurds in northern Iraq. The Kremlin has raised concerns that permanent basing would violate a 1997 NATO-Russia agreement that prohibits permanent basing “in the current and foreseeable security environment”, and senior USA officials said that NATO had chose to abide by those provisions.
The fight against Islamic State in Iraq continues to be hampered by political turmoil and inadequate or politically compromised Iraqi military forces. Obama recently authorized an increase in the number of troops that can deploy to Iraq to advise and assist Iraqi forces.
June 30, 2014: The president authorized another 200 troops to secure the American Embassy in Iraq, as well as Baghdad International Airport, bringing total new deployments at that time to 775. In October, a special operations soldier was killed in a raid on an IS prison in northern Iraq. The remainder includes special operations personnel, logistics workers and troops on temporary rotations. USA officials estimated the size of the rotating force to be about 1,000 US service members. “And there are American servicemembers involved”.
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“Prime Minister Abadi stands for and has been a partner in all of the things that are important to Iraq’s future, namely a country that holds together and doesn’t just spiral off into sectarianism”, Carter said. In March, a Marine artilleryman, Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, 27, was killed when the militants launched a rocket attack on a newly established US firebase outside Mosul.
