A highly-decorated Marine from western Riverside County was killed Saturday in northern Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense said Sunday.
Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, 27, of Temecula died Saturday from wounds suffered when his military unit was hit by rocket fire, the Pentagon said. He was in Makhmour at the time of the attack, a city southeast of Mosul, according to Stars and Stripes, a U.S. Army-owned newspaper.
The incident remains under investigation.
According to the Marine Corps, Cardin was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
He joined the Marines in June 2006. Cardin has been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, three Afghanistan Campaign medals, an Iraq Campaign Medal and three Sea Service Deployment ribbons, according to Stars and Stripes.
He was the second American killed in Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State, the U.S. Army newspaper reported.
–City News Service