IED BLAST KILLS U. S. SERVICE MEMBER

A U. S. service member died Thursday from wounds sustained in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Iraq, the U. S. military said.

The U. S. military did not release details. American advisers are with Iraqi forces in the battle for Mosul, the largest offensive yet against the Islamic State in Iraq. The serviceman was part of the Mosul operation, said a U. S. official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

American advisers in the Mosul offensive are generally positioned with headquarters and are not engaged in direct combat.

Still, U. S. officials cautioned that the troops are still exposed to danger. “Americans are in harm’s way as part of this fight,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said this week.

An American serviceman was killed in Iraq in March about 60 miles south of Mosul. Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, 27, died when Islamic State militants attacked the base. Last year, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, 39, was killed during a raid on an Islamic State prison compound.

There are about 5,000 U. S. troops in Iraq, mostly conducting advisory and training missions. About 100 U. S. troops are embedded with Iraqi units engaged in the Mosul operation.

In the first week of fighting in Mosul, Iraqi security forces have advanced closer to the city limits.