The United States has suffered a combat death near Irbil in Northern Iraq as a result of “enemy fire,” according to a Defense Department statement.

The Associated Press has more details on the statement from CENTCOM:

“A Coalition service member was killed in northern Iraq as a result of enemy fire,” the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. “Further information will be released as appropriate.”

The CENTCOM statement noted it is the policy of the military “to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.”

A U.S. military official said the American was killed while performing his duty as an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga troops. He was killed by “direct fire” after Islamic Stateforces penetrated the Peshmerga’s forward line.

CBS News has more details about the battle with ISIS that cost the American serviceman his life:

CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin reports the troop killed was an American advisor to the Kurdish Peshmerga force. He was working with a Peshmerga unit 2-3 miles behind the front line during a battle with ISIS when some of the militants managed to get far enough into Kurdish territory to kill the American with a gunshot.

“It was a real battle, not just one-off raid,” reports Martin.

A senior U.S. military official told CBS News that American F-15 fighter jets and drones provided air support — 23 strikes in all — to the Peshmerga forces during what was described as an intense battle.

“It’s a combat death, of course. And a very sad loss,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told reporters.

Of course, President Obama promised that there would be no combat troops in Iraq so it might be confusing as to how troops deployed in Iraq are killed in combat and yet they are not considered to have a combat role.

No worries, Carter explained that to Military Times in October after the military suffered their first combat death in Iraq since Obama’s latest deployment there to defeat ISIS:

“It doesn’t represent us assuming a combat role,” Carter said at the press briefing at the Pentagon. “It represents a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission.”

“We do not have combat formations there, the way we did once upon a time in Iraq,” he said.

“It doesn’t represent us assuming a combat role,” Carter said at the press briefing at the Pentagon. “It represents a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission.”

“We do not have combat formations there, the way we did once upon a time in Iraq,” he said.

There, that clears things up, doesn’t it?