A detachment of U.S. Marines was on the ground in Iraq to bolster U.S. and coalition efforts against Islamic State in the wake of a rocket attack that killed Marine Saturday, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
A group of Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, will join the U.S. forces already in Iraq battling Islamic State, it said.
The 26th MEU is currently deployed in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, which covers the Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean.
It was unclear how many Marines were being deployed to strengthen defenses at the coalition base near Makhmur in northern Iraq where the Marine was killed and a number of other people were injured.
The Pentagon on Sunday identified the dead Marine as Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, of Temecula, Calif. He is the second American in the mission against ISIS.
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