A US service member was killed in Iraq Tuesday as the U.S. military stepped up its role helping Christian and Kurdish militias battling ISIS near the terror group's stronghold in Mosul. 
"It is a combat death, of course. And a very sad loss," U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in Stuttgart, Germany, where he was meeting NATO allies. 
The casualty was confirmed as a Navy SEAL, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. There are 30 SEALs in Iraq as part of a Special Forces advise and assist mission. 
The death occurred "in the neighborhood of Erbil," the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, according to Carter. Martin reports the battle was north of Mosul, an area that saw intense fighting Tuesday as ISIS militants tried to fight their way north from their stronghold.

Source: QNA