The United States Marine who was killed in an Islamic State (ISIS) rocket attack on Saturday was part of an American fire-base which had been set up near Makhmour. The Marine was killed when ISIS fired two rockets from their positions 15km away, one of which hit the base and killed him. His fellow Marines immediately returned fire hitting the ISIS position with artillery fire. The fire-base is home for a “couple of hundred” Marines who are living in tents on the front-line. There they have set up howitzer artillery guns which will defend Iraqi and Kurdish troops during the upcoming liberation of Mosul. Currently it serves as protection for the nearby base where Americans are training 5,000 Iraqi soldiers who are readying for the long anticipated operation. This is according to CNN which has learned, through a US defense official, that the Marines moved into the area around a fortnight ago having previously been based on the USS Kearsarge amphibious assault ship. The US coalition also announced on Sunday that in coordination with the Iraqi government they “assigned a detachment of US Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit to the support of the Iraqi Security Forces and coalition ground operations. The detachment from the 26th MEU will add to the Marines and sailors currently in Iraq.” The Marines have nicknamed their front-line base “Fire Base Bell”.
