WASHINGTON: A 34-year-old soldier serving with the Indiana National Guard in Iraq has died in a non-combat incident, the Army said Monday.
Capt. Eric Richard Hart, 34, of Indianapolis, Indiana, died Saturday in Iraq, the Army National Guard said in a statement. Hart was assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion of Indiana’s 38th Infantry Division in Iraq. His death is under investigation.
While all combat operations have ceased for US forces in Iraq, the US maintains a presence of 2,500 troops to assist the Iraqi military in counter-Daesh operations and training. Those forces have repeatedly come under attack in the 14 months since Hamas attacked Israel, spurring a wider, deadly response from Tel Aviv.
During the last year, Iranian-backed forces have launched one-way attack drones, rockets and missiles at US facilities in Iraq in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
In September, the US announced an agreement with the Iraqi government to wrap up the American-led coalition’s military mission against the Daesh group in Iraq by 2025. US troops have departed some bases that they have long occupied during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.
Washington has had a continuous presence in Iraq since its 2003 invasion. Although all US combat forces left in 2011, thousands of troops returned in 2014 to help the Iraqi government defeat Daesh.
Since the extremist group lost its hold on the territory it once seized, Iraqi officials have periodically called for a withdrawal of coalition forces, particularly in the wake of a US airstrike in January 2020 that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis outside the Baghdad airport.
Before Monday’s announcement, a total of 4,419 troops had died in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom military campaign, including 3,482 combat deaths and 937 non-combat deaths, according to the latest Defense Department data. A total of 31,993 troops were wounded in action in Iraq.
The Defense Department’s summary does not include all of the forces who returned from war with wounds that surfaced later, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or toxic exposure.
