US soldier, Kurdish commander killed in Mosul assault

A US service member died yesterday from wounds sustained in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Iraq while a Kurdish commander was reported as killed by a Daesh suicide bomber, the US-led military coalition and Kurdish sources said.

A US defence official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the incident took place near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Roughly 5,000 US forces are in Iraq. More than 100 of them are embedded with Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces involved with the Mosul offensive, advising commanders and helping them ensure coalition air power hits the right targets, officials have said.

The statement did not identify the service member, who is the first US combat death in the operation to dislodge Daesh militants from Mosul. It is also the fourth US combat death since the coalition intervened in 2014 to fight Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

The Pentagon this week played down any new role for US forces in Iraq’s battle to retake Mosul and said they would be behind the front line of troops. But as the United States has increased its presence in Iraq this year to help in the Mosul fight, officials have acknowledged Americans will be “closer to the action”.

Peshmerga commander reported killed

 In related developments, a senior Kurdish Peshmerga field commander was also reported as having been killed by Daesh militants yesterday evening in the Bashiqa district.

Brigadier Mustafa Gorani was killed by a Daesh suicide car bomb (known as a VBIED) that managed to breach Peshmerga lines in Bashiqa which is not too far from a Turkish military base. If confirmed, Gorani’s demise will be the highest ranking Peshmerga death so far.

According to Al Jazeera, the same VBIED attack claimed “tens” of Peshmerga lives.

Daesh’s ability to breach Kurdish lines in Bashiqa demonstrates that it is putting up fierce resistance, despite being heavily outnumbered. It also shows that it is capable of inflicting serious losses on Iraqi forces and their allies.

Mosul is Daesh’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq that it has held since June 2014. It is also the city where Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the formation of his self-styled “Caliphate” from the pulpit of Mosul’s Hadba’ Mosque.