More US troops wounded in Iraq, Syria

More US troops wounded in Iraq, Syria

Al-Bab Report

At least 14 American military personnel have been wounded in combat since the start of October while battling Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, according to Defense Department data.  

The sudden increase accounts for nearly half of the 30 wounded-in-action reports that the U.S. has publicly acknowledged since the ISIS campaign began in August 2014, and coincides with two ongoing offensives targeting the terror group's strongholds in both countries: Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, the Islamic State's self-declared capital.

Although comparatively small when measured against monthly casualty reports from the height of America's full-scale conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers suggest that more U.S. troops are being sent closer to the Islamic State's front lines to direct or help local forces who are in the lead. It's a sensitive topic for the Pentagon and the White House, which has made painstaking efforts to minimize any perception that American forces are actively engaged in ground combat despite steadily increasing force levels in both theaters where now more than 5,500 U.S. troops are deployed.