On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that a U.S. serviceman was killed "in the neighborhood of Erbil," the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. "It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss," Carter said in Stuttgart, Germany, where he is meeting with NATO allies. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also released a brief statement, saying the unidentified "coalition service member was killed in northern Iraq as a result of enemy fire."
A U.S. military official tells The Associated Press that the serviceman was killed by "direct fire" while advising Kurdish Peshmerga troops, after Islamic State fighters broke through the Kurds' forward line. He was two to three miles behind that line, the official tells AP. On Tuesday, CBS News adds, U.S. and coalition aircraft were helping local forces attack ISIS north of Mosul, about 50 miles west of Erbil.
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