First U.S. Casualty in Latest Iraq Bombing Campaign

A pair of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria, in this U.S. Air Force handout photo taken early in the morning of September 23, 2014. (Photo by Reuters)

The United States and its allies conducted at least 22 air strikes against the Islamic State (I.S.) group positions in Iraq Friday, with the U.S. Central Command confirming the destruction of an artillery facility near Kobani on Saturday.

U.S. forces also conducted strikes on areas in Iraq including near the Mosul dam, the city of Fallujah and the northern city of Bayji, home of an oil refinery. The attacks hit large Islamic State units, buildings, vehicles and fighting positions, accoding to U.S. military officials.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon reported the first death of a U.S. military serviceman in Iraq since U.S. President Barack Obama announced the new operation to purportedly combat the I.S. extremists.

Sean Neal, a 19-year-old marine from California, died in Baghdad in what officials described as a non-combat incident.

In 2011, the Obama administration announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq after a decade-long occupation of the country which resulted in more than 4,000 U.S. casualties as well as 500,000 Iraqi deaths as direct or indirect result of the invasion and its aftermath.

The U.S. government has repeatedly say that it will reverse the advances of the I.S. group, and began limited airstrike against the Iraqi positions of the I.S. group in August, expanded the bombing campaign into neighboring Syria in late September. The Obama administration has also deployed 1,600 troops to “assist and advise” the Iraqi military.