1st U.S. troops die in ISIS fight since last year

Two U.S. Special Operations Marines died in a mission targeting ISIS, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said Monday.

The elite Marine Raiders were partnered with Iraqi security forces for a Sunday raid into an ISIS hideout in the Qara Chockh Mountains of north central Iraq, NBC News reports. Two American troops were "killed by enemy forces while advising and accompanying" the Iraqi troops, the statement continues.

The names of the two troops have not yet been released, and the Operation Inherent Resolve statement didn't mention if any Iraqi forces were killed. NBC News also reports four other U.S. troops were wounded on the mission. The bodies of those killed were recovered after six hours with help from reinforcements, Army Col. Myles Caggins, a U.S. military spokesman, tells The Washington Post.

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Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the coalition to defeat ISIS, criticized the apparent danger of the mission, tweeting that "we seem to have lost focus on this mission."

These two deaths mark the first U.S. casualties in the six-year fight against ISIS since last August, when Marine Gunnery Sgt. Scott A. Koppenhafer died in an operation in Iraq.