U.S. service member killed Thursday in northern Iraq

An explosion near Mosul, Iraq.
(Image credit: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

On Thursday, a U.S. service member died after he was injured in an IED blast in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The military did not release any further details, but an official who asked for anonymity told USA Today that the soldier was part of the operation to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State. American advisers are working with Iraqi troops, who launched an offensive to retake Mosul on Monday, and while advisers typically do not participate in direct combat, earlier this week Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that "Americans are in harm's way as part of this fight." This is the fourth death of a U.S. service member since troops were deployed in 2014 to assist Iraqi forces fighting ISIS.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.