On Friday, the Pentagon reported that a US marine from California has died in Iraq. The death of the American serviceman is the first recorded fatality in its new mission against Islamic State militants (ISIS) who have seized large territories in Iraq and Syria.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the US marine from Riverside, California died in Iraq Thursday from a non-combat related incident. In a press release from the Department of Defense, 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Sean P. Neal died in an incident in Baghdad. The department added that the incident is currently under investigation.
The Los Angeles Times reported the US marine was assigned to the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment at Twenty-nine Palms. The battalion was set out last month to the Middle East as part of a "Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force."
The US marine from California was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, which refers to the US Military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
As reported by The Washington Post, a marine was thought lost at sea after he fell from an aircraft into the Arabian Gulf earlier this month.
The Pentagon stated that the death of the marine from California is the first US casualty in Iraq since the Obama Administration launched its "Inherent Resolve" mission that included intensive airstrikes against the vicious ISIS jihadists in the Middle East.
The Marine's death is a milestone for the administration of US President Barack Obama. In 2011, Obama ordered troops to withdraw from Iraq in order to ensure the United States is not drawn into more of the costly, messy ground wars that characterized the years after the horrible September 11 attacks.
After the US-led invasion in 2003, over 4,000 US military servicemen were killed in Iraq. And Obama vowed that US forces will not return to fight there.
At this time however, the Obama administration is slowly expanding its involvement in Iraq and neighboring Syria in an attempt to destroy the ISIS insurgents, which threatens not only the Iraqi government but had sworn to strike the West and its other allied nations.
In its announcement on Sept. 30, the US Central Command said about 2,300 Marines of the task force will be deployed but not in response to the ongoing missions in Iraq and that the Marines would be spread to several spots in the area.
The Central Command also said Friday that there are around 150 Marines from the task force assigned to Iraq to provide additional security for US personnel and facilities. Not counting Marines from the special task force, the US force in Iraq is now approximately 1,400.
The deployment of task force Marines to Iraq and Neal's death simply show the vital role that Marines and sailors from California bases are participating in the US operation.
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