Pentagon identifies American soldier killed in Iraq attack

A 20-year-old Army specialist was killed in Iraq on Sunday when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive, raising to at least 13 the number of U.S. troops killed while fighting the Islamic State there and in neighboring Syria.

Alexander Missildine, of Tyler, Texas, arrived in Iraq only last month. He was assigned to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, which is training and advising Iraqi forces. Missildine, who enlisted in July 2015, died in Salah ad-Din Province northwest of Baghdad, a region that includes the key cities Tikrit and Samarra.

Missildine was a motor transport operator, Army officials said in a news release. Another soldier, whose name has not been released, was wounded during the incident.

It is unclear what they were doing when the attack occurred. Key highways linking Syria and Iraq wind through Salah ad-Din Province. ISIS militants captured large swaths of territory there starting in 2014.

Since January, at least five U.S. troops have been killed in action as part of the Pentagon’s operation to oust the Islamic State from its main strongholds, according to Defense Department data. Another 25 have been wounded by hostile action.

Sunday’s attack comes one week after a French special operations soldier was killed battling the militant group, marking that nation’s first combat fatality in Iraq and Syria – though officials did not specify where it occurred.

After defeating the Islamic State in Mosul and then Tal Afar, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have turned their attention to Hawijah, a densely populated city north of Baghdad.

Another operation is underway in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, where the Islamic State was ousted in February 2016.

Missildine was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and a Combat Action Badge, the first two of which were likely awarded posthumously, officials said.