WASHINGTON — A U.S. military member was killed by a roadside bomb Thursday in connection with the Iraqi effort to retake the key city of Mosul, marking the first American combat casualty in the long-planned push against the Islamic State group.
U.S. officials said the American was in a vehicle north of Mosul when he was hit. He later died of his wounds. His identity was being withheld pending notification of his family.
Pentagon officials had acknowledged at the outset of the Iraqi-led offensive that U.S. special operations troops advising Iraqi security forces and Kurdish militia fighters could be injured or killed as they advanced on Mosul.
Roadside bombs and other emplacements of improvised explosive devices pose a particular danger to advancing Iraqi forces and the U.S. advisers who are with them. The Islamic State group, which has occupied Mosul for more than two years, has prepared extensive defenses in and around the city.
The American who died Thursday had been advising members of the Kurdish militia known as peshmerga, one U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details.
More than 100 U.S. special operations forces are operating with Iraqi units, and hundreds more are playing a support role in staging bases farther from the front lines.
U.S. Central Command announced the death in a brief statement saying the service member was wounded by an “improvised explosive device.”
The assault on Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is bringing American forces into their most significant role in Iraq in years. There are more U.S. forces in Iraq now than any time since the 2011 U.S. withdrawal, and American forces have been increasingly active on and beyond front-line positions.
Asked earlier this week about the degree of risk facing U.S. special operations forces who are advising Iraqi forces in the Mosul operation, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Iraqis are in the lead but efforts are being made to limit the risk facing U.S. troops.
“There are Americans in harm’s way as part of this fight,” Cook said Monday as the Mosul offensive was announced by the Iraqi government. “We’re very aware of that and we’re taking steps, as many steps as we can, to reduce the risk to American forces and we’ll continue to do that.”
There are approximately 4,800 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. That doesn’t include another 1,500 troops considered there “on temporary duty,” whose number changes daily, according to the U.S. officials.
Three other service members have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against IS in August 2014.
In October 2015, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler was killed when he and dozens of other U.S. special operations forces participated in a raid alongside Iraqi Kurdish forces to free IS-held prisoners.
Months later, Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin was killed when IS fighters attacked a fire base in northern Iraq, and in May, Navy SEAL Charles Keating was killed in a firefight near Tel Askuf, also in the north.
ROBERT BURNS
LOLITA C. BALDOR
