U.S. service member killed in Mosul, Iraq
MOSUL, Iraq (WTVD) -- A U.S. service member has died in the line of duty, CNN reports.
According to a statement from the anti-ISIS coalition, the service member died from wounds they sustained from an explosive device blast outside of Mosul, Iraq, on Saturday.
The victim's identity has not yet been released.
The incident marks the second American military fatality since the start of the Mosul operation against the Islamic State group more than six months ago, the Associated Press reports.
In October, just days after the operation to retake Mosul was formally launched, Navy chief petty officer Jason C. Finan, 34, of Anaheim, California died of wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack north of Mosul.
Finan was part of a team of advisers assisting Iraq's Kurdish fighters known as the Peshmerga.
The Pentagon has acknowledged more than 100 U.S. special operations forces are operating with Iraqi units in and around Mosul, with hundreds more playing a support role in staging bases farther from the front lines.
The service member killed Saturday is the fifth combat death in Iraq since the U.S. launched military operations against IS in August 2014. IS fighters began growing in power in Iraq in early 2014 in the country's west and in the summer of 2014 swept across much of the country's north.
The soldiers' death comes just days after two other soldiers may have been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
