US soldier killed in Iraq

By Esra Kaymak Avci

WASHINGTON

One U.S. soldier was killed during a Daesh attack on a peshmerga position in Iraq's city of Mosul, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The soldier was advising and assisting Kurdish peshmerga forces as part of a counter Daesh campaign, according to spokesman Peter Cook.

"The casualty occurred during an ISIL attack on a peshmerga position approximately three to five kilometers behind the forward line of troops," he said in a written statement.

No additional information was provided.

Before the announcement Tuesday, two American soldiers had been killed in Iraq since the U.S. withdrew from the country in 2011.

One of the soldiers was killed in March during a missile attack in Mosul. Another was killed during a rescue operation in October 2015.