Stuttgard (Germany): US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Tuesday that an American serviceman has been killed near Arbil in Iraq.
“It is a combat death,” Carter said at the outset of a news conference in Stuttgart, Germany where he has been consulting with European allies this week.
The defence secretary provided no other details, other than to tell reporters that the serviceman lost his life “in the neighbourhood of Arbil.”
“A coalition service member was killed in northern Iraq as a result of enemy fire,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. “Further information will be released as appropriate.”
The CENTCOM statement noted it is the policy of the military “to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities”.
Former Vice-President Joe Biden visited Baghdad last week to exhort leaders of the government in Iraq to resolve internal political strife and concentrate on the effort to defeat Daesh.
Carter, likewise, visited Baghdad recently. The Obama administration has been pressing the effort against Daesh, which has been slowed down in its quest to overrun Iraq.
