The Islamic State group broke through Kurdish defenses in northern Iraq on Tuesday and killed a US Navy Seal deployed as part of the US-led coalition against the militants.
The attack came as the UN said that fighting with the Islamic State in northern Iraq could displace another 30,000 people, adding to millions who have already fled their homes.
In Baghdad, throngs of Shiite pilgrims braved the threat of bombings by the Islamic State, which have killed dozens of people in recent days, to take part in a major annual religious commemoration.
Photo: AP / Sherrie Buzby / The Arizona Republic
The sailor from the special operations force was the third coalition member killed by enemy fire in Iraq since the Islamic State overran swathes of the country in 2014.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey identified the fallen Seal as Charlie Keating IV, who attended high school in Phoenix.
US President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but US forces have been drawn back into combat in the nation against the militant group.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the death occurred during an Islamic State attack on one of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces’ positions north of Iraq’s militant-held second city of Mosul.
A US Department of Defense official said the Seal’s death was the result of “an orchestrated attack.”
A coalition military official said the American was killed at 9:30am by “direct fire” after “enemy forces penetrated” the Peshmerga line.
The Seal was a member of a “small team” who were present at a Peshmerga encampment behind the original front line during the Islamic State attack, which involved explosives-rigged vehicles, bulldozers and infantry, the official said.
“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, the official said.
Kurdish forces are deployed in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
The Islamic State attacked the Peshmerga in multiple areas of northern Iraq on Tuesday in an attempt to “thwart the plan to liberate Mosul,” said Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the autonomous Kurdish region’s Peshmerga ministry.
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said the Islamic State overran the Tal Asquf area and that the group employed suicide bombers.
Tal Asquf is a small town whose population fled in 2014.
According to the Kurdistan Region Security Council, the town was “completely cleared” of Islamic State fighters later on Tuesday.
Romeo Hekari, who heads a Christian unit fighting the Islamic State under Peshmerga command, also said Tal Asquf was back under full control.
The US last month announced that it was deploying additional forces to Iraq, bringing the official total to more than 4,000.
The coalition is carrying out daily airstrikes against Islamic State positions, and while most US forces on the ground in Iraq play advisory and support roles, Washington has also deployed special forces to carry out raids against the militant group and US Marines to provide artillery support.
Two US military personnel had already been killed by the Muslim group in Iraq: a marine by rocket fire in March and a special forces soldier who died of wounds received during a raid in October last year.
Obama repeatedly pledged that there would be no “boots on the ground” to combat the Islamic State, but the administration has since sought to define the term as meaning something other than American forces being on the ground and in combat.
“They are wearing boots, and they are on the ground, but that... doesn’t mean that they are in large-scale ground combat,” US Department of State spokesman John Kirby told journalists.
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