Islamic State kills U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq

STUTTGART, Germany - Islamic State militants killed a U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq on Tuesday after blasting through Kurdish defenses and overrunning a town in the biggest offensive in the area for months, officials said.

The elite serviceman was the third American to be killed in direct combat since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign in 2014 to 'degrade and destroy” Islamic State and is a measure of its deepening involvement in the conflict.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the dead serviceman was a Navy SEAL. The SEALs are considered to be among the most able U.S. special operations forces and capable of taking on dangerous missions.

A senior official within the Kurdish peshmerga forces facing Islamic State in northern Iraq said the man had been killed near the town of Tel Asqof, about 17 miles from the militant stronghold of Mosul.

Islamic State insurgents occupied the town at dawn Tuesday but were driven out later in the day by the peshmerga. A U.S. military official said the coalition had helped the peshmerga by conducting more than 20 air strikes.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Navy SEAL was killed 'by direct fire” while on a mission to advise and assist local forces in Iraq.

SNIPERS, SUICIDE BOMBERS

In mid-April, the United States announced plans to send an additional 200 troops to Iraq and put them closer to the front lines of battle to advise Iraqi forces in the war against the Islamic State militant group.

Underscoring the complicated nature of the U.S. role in Iraq, the White House told reporters that even though the serviceman died in a combat situation, he was not on a combat mission.

The leader of a Christian militia deployed alongside peshmerga in Tel Asqof said the insurgents had used multiple suicide bombers, some driving vehicles laden with explosives, to penetrate peshmerga lines.

The Kurdistan Region Security Council said at least 25 Islamic State vehicles had been destroyed Tuesday and more than 80 militants killed. At least 10 peshmerga also died in the fighting, according to a Kurdish official.

The peshmerga also deflected Islamic State attacks on the Bashiqa front and in the Khazer area, military sources said.