A service member with Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve died in a non-combat related incident in Erbil, Iraq, March 30, the command announced.
The cause of death remains under investigation, but COVID-19 is not suspected, officials said in a media release. No other details were provided.
The soldier was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division out of Ft. Hood, a defense official told Military Times.
It is CJTF-OIR policy to defer casualty identification to the relevant national authorities after the next of kin have been notified.
The soldier is the sixth service member to die this year in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the fight against ISIS.
Prior to this, the most recent troop deaths were two service members killed on March 13. The military identified the two U.S. troops killed in a rocket attack on Camp Taji in Iraq as Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias, 27, of Hanford, California, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts, 28, of Owasso, Oklahoma.
Mendez Covarrubias was assigned to 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Roberts was assigned to 219th Engineering Installation Squadron of the Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 138th Fighter Wing.
Howard Altman is an award-winning editor and reporter who was previously the military reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and before that the Tampa Tribune, where he covered USCENTCOM, USSOCOM and SOF writ large among many other topics.
