The War In Iraq Update: How Did UK Soldier Die? 'Incident' Was Not 'Enemy Activity'

A British soldier was killed in Iraq under questionable circumstances, according to a news report published Monday afternoon. Details were scarce, but the "incident" was under investigation after it was determined the death "was not as a result of enemy activity," the British Ministry of Defence said in a statement, Sky News reported.

The soldier, who was not immediately identified, died in the town of Taji, which is located about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad. He served in the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. It was not immediately clear when exactly the soldier died.

"From that we can surmise that this soldier was there in a training capacity, as opposed to fighting Islamic State further north in Mosul, for example," a Sky News reporter indicated.

However, nothing was immediately confirmed and the soldier's death was "under investigation."

The Minister of Defence released a full, brief statement following the soldier's death.

The soldier may have indeed been participating in or even leading training exercises, as a group of British military specialist soldiers joined about 500 others in Iraq last month for that sole purpose. The British soldiers were in Iraq to train rebels to fight the Islamic State group, Sputnik News reported. Some of the training exercises being led by British soldiers include infantry skills, combat first aid and other battlefield tactics.

Together with the U.S. military, the British armed forces have killed more than 50,000 ISIS soldiers in both Iraq and Syria in the last two years alone.

The British military has lost nearly 2000 service members since the War in Iraq began in 2003, according to a running tabulation compiled by the BBC. Most of those deaths have been attributed to causes such as friendly fire, strikes, suicide or natural causes.