WASHINGTON — A U.S. Marine killed in Iraq over the weekend was part of a force that recently established a small firebase to protect a nearby military facility where Iraqi forces are assembling for an eventual assault into Mosul.
The Pentagon described the Marine force as company-sized, generally between 150 and 200 troops, and said it established an artillery firebase to help defend the larger Iraqi base at Mahkmour in northern Iraq.
U.S. trainers and advisers are at the Mahkmour base helping the Iraqis prepare for the assault on Mosul, which is still months away.
“It is part of our broader advice and assist mission,” Col. Steve Warren, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said of the new U.S. firebase.
The base is inside friendly lines, and its mission is defensive in nature, he said.
The area came under attack again Monday, but the assault was repelled. Two militants were killed “and the rest ran away,” Warren said.
Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, of Temecula, Calif., was killed Saturday when the firebase came under a rocket attack from Islamic State militants. Some Marines were also injured in the attack and have been evacuated for treatment to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
Cardin, 27, was assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the Pentagon said
