Navy officer, 34, identified as first American casualty in fight against ISIS to regain Iraqi city of Mosul

Navy officer, 34, identified as first American casualty in fight against ISIS to regain Iraqi city of Mosul



Navy officer Jason Finan was identified as the first American killed in the effort to rid the Iraqi city of Mosul of ISIS forces. (US NAVY)

BY Larry Mcshane NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, October 21, 2016, 11:57 PM

A U.S. Navy officer with a wife and young son was identified Friday as the first American killed in the fight to eradicate ISIS forces from the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Explosives expert Jason Finan, 34, of Anaheim, Calif., was mortally wounded one day earlier in a roadside bombing attack north of the city — the terrorist group’s last major stronghold in northern Iraq.

Finan left behind a wife and 7-year-old boy Christopher when he died Thursday, shortly after the homemade bomb detonated near the town of Bashiqa, according to a relative’s Facebook post.

“Just know that Jason Finan was a real American hero,” wrote Sandra Dominguez. “R.I.P. Jason we love you and can’t wait until we all meet in heaven someday.”

Finan was working as an advisor to Kurdish fighters when the armored vehicle in which he was riding struck the IED and overturned, officials said.

He was based in Coronado, Calif., and assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Three.

Iraqi Security Forces launched a counter-offensive this past week to recapture the second-largest city in Iraq.

“The entire Navy Expeditionary Combat Center (NECC) offers our deepest condolences and sympathies to the family and loved ones of the sailor we lost,” said Rear Admiral Brian Brakke, commander of the NECC.

Finan is the fourth U.S. combat death in Iraq since the U.S. began military operations against the Islamic State with airstrikes in August 2014.

He was among the more than 100 U.S. special operations forces assisting Iraqi units in the fight to drive the terrorists out of Mosul. ISIS seized control of the city in 2014.

The death was a “reminder that our people who are participating in the counter-(ISIS) campaign ... are in harm's way,” said Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “This is necessary work, because it's necessary for us to destroy (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.”

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