scyther5/iStock(BAGHDAD) — Two American troops were killed in Iraq on Sunday during an anti-ISIS mission, a deadly reminder of the terror group’s ongoing presence there, officials announced Monday.
According to the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, the two service members were “killed by enemy forces while advising and accompanying Iraqi Security Forces during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold in a mountainous area of north central Iraq.”
Another four service members were wounded during the mission, a U.S. official told ABC News.
The names of the service members who were killed are being withheld by the Defense Department pending next of kin notification.
The incident marks the first U.S. troop combat deaths in Iraq this year.
In late December, an American contractor was killed in a rocket attack targeting a military base in northern Iraq. The Pentagon later identified an Iranian-backed militia group, Kata’ib Hizbollah, as responsible for the attack.
Marine Raider Gunnery Sergeant Scott Koppenhafer, 35, of Mancos, Colorado, was killed last August while advising Iraqi Security Forces on a planned mission in northern Ninevah province.
American troops have been training the Iraqi military in the fight against ISIS since 2015.
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