Coronado-Based Sailor Dies in Iraq: DOD

Chief Petty Officer Jason Finan is the first U.S. combat death in the offensive to re-take the Iraqi city of Mosul

A sailor with the U.S. Navy based in Coronado, California, was the American service member killed in Iraq Thursday, Defense Department officials confirmed Friday.

Chief Petty Officer Jason C. Finan, 34, died Thursday from injuries suffered by an "improvised explosive device," or roadside bomb, officials said.

Finan was from Anaheim, California, and was serving in Iraq with Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3 in an advisory capacity, according to the Pentagon. 

"The entire Navy Expeditionary Combat Command family offers our deepest condolences and sympathies to the family and loved ones of the Sailor we lost," said Rear Adm. Brian Brakke, commander of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command/NECC Pacific, in a news release.

Finan was the first U.S. service member to die in combat since the launch of a massive operation to retake the Islamic State-held city of Mosul earlier this week.

More than 100 U.S. special operations forces are embedded with Iraqi units, and hundreds more are playing a supporting role in staging bases.

As of early this month, there were 4,565 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. That doesn't include another 1,500 troops considered there "on temporary duty," whose number changes daily, according to the U.S. officials.

Three other service members have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against IS in August 2014.

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