The coalition military official said the service member killed on Tuesday was involved in advising and assisting forces, and was three to five kilometers (two to three miles) behind the front line.
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The Defense Department has not yet provided any information on the identity of the service member or the specific circumstances surrounding this casualty.
The serviceman, whose rank remains unclear, was an adviser to Peshmerga forces fighting the terror group.
It was not immediately clear when the serviceman died but Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said he was killed near Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city that has been in the hands of IS militants since they overran large swaths of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014.
The Islamic State group broke through Kurdish defences in northern Iraq on Tuesday and killed an American service member of the US-led coalition fighting the jihadists, officials said.
He was the third American servicemember killed in combat since the US -led coalition entered the war against the Islamic State group in 2014.
December 1, 2015: Carter told Congress the USA will deploy a special operations “targeting force” of 320 to kill ISIS militants, find and free hostages and gather intelligence.
“These American forces will not have a combat mission – we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq”, President Obama said in September 2014 when he laid out his strategy to combat ISIS. “The American was three to two to three miles behind that front line”.
President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but U.S. forces have been drawn back into combat in the country against IS. The SEALs are considered to be among the most able US special operations forces and capable of taking on risky missions. VanDyke pointed out that ISIS militants sent auto bombs every time USA backed-forces tried to advance.
“They fought, but they’re a small number and they’re not supposed to be in direct contact”, and they departed by American helicopter after the SEAL was shot, according to the official.
The parsing of words is meant to differentiate the latest Islamic State conflicts from earlier wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when thousands of US troops were battling the enemy in small units and in close combat. By late afternoon on Tuesday, the town was again out of ISIS control.
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It is the third death of a United States service member since the US-led coalition operation began against IS in 2014.
