The Pentagon says a US service member has been killed by the Islamic State group in an attack in northern Iraq. The dead man was the third American to be killed in direct combat since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign against the jihadist group in 2014.
 
"In the neighbourhood of Erbil. And I'm getting these preliminary reports, I don't know much more than that, but I believe that much is true. So our thought and prayers are with that servicemember's family as we're here in Stuttgart today," US defense secreatry Ash Carter said.

A senior official of the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga force said the man was killed near Tal Asqof, a town 28 kilometers north of Mosul. Iraq's Joint Operations Command said Islamic State overran the Tal Asquf area and that the group was employing suicide bombers in the ongoing fighting.