Iraqi special forces launch pre-dawn attack on Mosul suburb; one American dead

Associated Press

BARTELLA, Iraq

In a significant escalation of the battle for Mosul, elite Iraqi special forces joined the fight Thursday, unleashing a pre-dawn assault on an Islamic State-held town east of the besieged city, and the U.S. military announced the first American combat death since the operation began.

U.S. officials said the American service member died Thursday from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb explosion north of Mosul. More than 100 U.S. special operations forces are embedded with Iraqi units in the offensive, and hundreds more are playing a support role in staging bases.

The American had been advising members of the Iraqi Kurdish force known as the peshmerga, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details.

Roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices pose a particular danger to advancing Iraqi forces and the U.S. advisers who are with them.

The Islamic State group, which has occupied Mosul for more than two years, has prepared extensive defenses in and around the city.

As they charged toward the town of Bartella, nine miles from Mosul’s outskirts, the Iraqi special forces faced another favored weapon in the IS arsenal: armored trucks packed with explosives and driven by suicide bombers.

The militants’ signature battlefield tactic, the weapons offered a glimpse at what Iraqi forces can expect as they close in on the extremists’ biggest urban bastion.