First US soldier killed in Iraq in more than four years

THE US military suffered its first routine combat casualty in Iraq for more than four years yesterday after a rocket attack on an Iraqi army base near Mosul, Isil’s main stronghold in northern Iraq.

The soldier, who has not been named, was stationed at the Makhmour base near Mosul, the city held by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) which has come under a growing number of attacks in recent weeks as Iraqi troops mass in preparation for an expected assault. The attack was an “indirect fire attack”, specifically rockets, an anonymous US official said, with further reports adding that a small number of US service personnel were wounded in the attack.

The US-led coalition has reported that as Iraqi troops have built up at Makhmour in preparation for an assault on Mosul, attacks by insurgents have increased. Makhmour lies within territory controlled by the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.

The US has more than 4,500 troops in Iraq who were deployed in 2014 after Isil made rapid advances, including seizing the strategic prize of Mosul, a city of 2.5 million inhabitants that gave Isil access to oil resources.

The last US service member killed in Iraq was in October 2015 when Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler died during a special forces rescue mission, also in northern Iraq.

Col Steven Warren, a spokesman for operation Inherent Resolve, the US military operation against Isil, issued a statement saying the operation command was “saddened to announce” the death. “I express our sincerest condo- lences,” he added. “The Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve can confirm the death of a coalition service member in northern Iraq today as a result of enemy action,” it said in a statement.

The coalition’s main role in the war against Isil has been to provide air support. But the United States and some of its leading partners in the coalition such as France, Britain, Australia and Italy also have significant contingents deployed on the ground in Iraq. Their official role is to train and advise local Iraqi forces.