'No boots on the ground' has its limits as U.S. Navy SEAL is killed in Iraq

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters search for Islamic State militants in Tel Asqof, northern Iraq May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

TEL ASQOF, Iraq (Reuters) - A pickup truck races towards a burning village in northern Iraq, slamming to a halt behind an armoured convoy that forms the only barrier between U.S. forces and Islamic State.

    "We are fighting alongside our American brothers," says the Kurdish fighter filming the scene, shouting to be heard over the sound of gunfire and explosions on the outskirts of Tel Asqof.