US-led coalition service member killed in Iraq

Reuters/Mohammed Al-Ramahi

A service member from the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State was killed and another injured in Iraq over the weekend when an improvised explosive device struck their vehicle, the coalition said in a statement on Monday.

The statement did not give further details on the incident, including the nationality of the service member, saying additional information would be released after next of kin notification. The incident took place on Oct. 1.

A member of a French paratroop regiment serving with the coalition was killed in the Iraq-Syria region last month.

A dozen U.S. service members have been killed fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014, according to Pentagon data.

Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, began an offensive on Sept. 21 to dislodge Islamic State from Hawija.

Islamic State militants set fire to three oil wells near Hawija, west of the oil city of Kirkuk, one of two areas of Iraq still under their control, military and oil officials said.

Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group, has lost control of all the oilfields it once controlled in the north of Iraq.