The Army has identified Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler as the American soldier who was killed during a raid by Kurdish and U.S. forces to free hostages held by the Islamic State.
Wheeler, 39, died from enemy gunfire while in combat near Hawija, Iraq, the Army said Friday in a statement. He was born in Roland, Oklahoma, and graduated in 1994 from Muldrow High School in Muldrow, Oklahoma.
The raid was planned after officials learned that the hostages faced "imminent mass execution," Peter Cook, a spokesman for the Pentagon, told reporters. He said U.S. forces provided helicopters for transport to the Islamic State compound. The raid freed about 70 hostages, including more than 20 members of Iraqi security forces. Five Islamic State operatives were detained, and several were killed, Cook said.
Four peshmerga fighters, as the Kurdish forces are known, were also wounded during the raid, Cook said.
Wheeler entered the Army as an infantryman in May 1995, the Army said. He was assigned to Army Special Operations Command in 2004, and deployed 11 times in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was the first American killed in action in Iraq since the renewed military intervention there last year.
He is survived by his wife, four sons, and his grandmother and grandfather.