Pentagon identifies Marine killed in Iraq

The Department of Defense announced in a statement on Sunday that Gunnery Sergeant Scott A. Koppenhafer died Saturday "after being engaged by enemy small arms fire while conducting combat operations."

The death of 35-year-old Koppenhafer, from Mancos, Colorado, is under investigation.

According to information posted with his photo on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Koppenhafer is survived by a wife and two children.

He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, Marine Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The Pentagon statement did not give further details about the nature of the operation but Pentagon officials have claimed that the US-led international coalition purportedly combating Daesh terrorists in Iraq and Syria continue to be active despite proclaiming total victory against them months earlier.

However, US press reports say that Iraqi forces have recently launched new operations in the country's northern area to weed out remnants of Daesh terrorists, who are widely suspected among Iraqi circles of being backed by the American military and its regional allies.

The Pentagon established a joint task force in 2014 dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve with the purported objective of fighting Daesh terrorists across Iraq and Syria amid widespread reports that many of militants were trained by US military forces in a scheme to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.