U.S. Service Member Killed In Iraq After Rocket Attack

By Barbara Starr and Jim Sciutto

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- An American service member was killed in an indirect fire rocket attack on a base at Makhmur in northern Iraq, a U.S. official told CNN Saturday.

The base is located where the U.S. conducts advise-and-assist activities. The service member was on security duty there for force protection. A small number of other American troops were wounded in the attack, but the official declined to say how many or how seriously.

The official did not identify the service member killed as the family has not yet been notified.

The Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve confirmed the death of a coalition service member in a news release.

The last U.S. service member to be killed in Iraq as a result of hostile enemy action was Army soldier Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, of Roland, Oklahoma, who died in October during a rescue mission in northern Iraq. Wheeler was the first American to die in combat in Iraq since November 2011.

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