In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

A 19 year-old Marine from Riverside has died in Iraq, becoming the second U.S. military member to die as the U.S. fights the advance of Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. 
  
 Lance Cpl. Sean P. Neal, a specialist in the use of mortars, died in a “non-combat related incident” Thursday in Baghdad, the Department of Defense announced Friday. The incident is under investigation. 
  
 Neal, who enlisted in 2013, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment at Twentynine Palms. The battalion deployed last month to the Middle East as part of what Marines call a Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force. 
  
 The task force is meant to bolster the “crisis response capability” in the region. The announcement of Neal’s death marks the first indication that Marines from the task force are in Iraq. 
  
 In its Sept. 30 announcement about the deployment of the 2,300 Marines of the task force, the U.S. Central Command said that it was "not in response to the ongoing operations in Iraq" and that the Marines would be spread to several spots in the region. 
  
 Central Command said late Friday that there are approximately 150 Marines from the task force assigned to Iraq to provide additional security for U.S. personnel and facilities. 
  
 President Obama has insisted that there will be no U.S. ground combat troops in Iraq, but last month the administration approved sending additional troops to the Iraqi capital to bolster diplomatic security for State Department officials at the Baghdad embassy compound and its support facilities. 
  
 Not counting Marines from the special task force, the U.S. force in Iraq is now about 1,400. 
  
 The death of Neal, and the deployment of task force Marines to Iraq, indicates the key role that Marines and sailors from California bases are playing in the U.S. mission. 
  
 Earlier this month, Cpl. Jordan Spears, 21, from the San Diego-based 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, became the first U.S. fatality in the mission that the Pentagon recently dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve. 
  
 Spears bailed out of an MV-22 Osprey aircraft in the Persian Gulf when it appeared on the verge of crashing. After searching for two days the Navy declared Spears as “lost at sea.” 
  
 From 2003 to 2011, 345 Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton and 115 from Twentynine Palms died in Iraq. 
  
 The administration has steadily increased its efforts against the Islamic State militants as they have seized large swaths of western and northern Iraq and threatened Iraq's government and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. 
  
 Plans for the task force crisis response unit began in summer of 2013, months before the assault on Iraq by Sunni militants under the banner of setting up an Islamic caliphate, the Marine Corps said. 
  
 The force will be headquartered in Kuwait, Col. Kenneth DeTreux told the newspaper Stars and Stripes. Kuwait was the staging point for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. 
  
 The force includes infantry Marines from Twentynine Palms, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, headquarters and logistics personnel from Camp Pendleton. 
  
 Spears, from Memphis, was a crew member on the Osprey, which deployed to the Persian Gulf aboard the amphibious assault ship Makin Island. 
  
 The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group consists of three San Diego-based ships and 4,000 Marines and sailors. The Marines are the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton. 
  
 A week ago the carrier Carl Vinson, based at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, relieved the carrier George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf to continue the bombing mission of Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria. 
  
 The Vinson’s air squadrons are from Naval Air Station Lemoore, near Fresno. The three destroyers and one cruiser with the Vinson are all from San Diego. 
  
 The U.S. and coalition partners have launched more than 600 airstrikes since Aug. 8. 
  
 @LATSandiego 
  
 @wjhenn 
  
  
  
  ||||| CAMP LEATHERNECK Afghanistan British troops ended their combat operations in Afghanistan on Sunday as they and U.S. Marines handed over two huge adjacent bases to the Afghan military, 13 years after a U.S.-led invasion launched the long and costly war against the Taliban. 
  
 Their coming departure leaves Afghanistan and its newly installed president, Ashraf Ghani, to deal almost unaided with an emboldened Taliban insurgency after the last foreign combat troops withdraw by year-end. 
  
 At the U.S. Camp Leatherneck and Britain's Camp Bastion, which lie next to each other in the southwestern province of Helmand, troops lowered the American and British flags for the final time on Sunday and folded them away. 
  
 The timing of their withdrawal has not been announced for security reasons. 
  
 Camp Leatherneck, the largest U.S. base to be handed over to Afghan control, and Camp Bastion together formed the international coalition's regional headquarters for the southwest of Afghanistan, housing up to 40,000 military personnel and civilian contractors. 
  
 But on Sunday, the base resembled a dust-swept ghost town of concrete blast walls, empty barracks and razor wire. Offices and bulletin boards, which once showed photo tributes to dead American and British soldiers, had been stripped. 
  
 "It's eerily empty," said Lt. Will Davis, of the Queen's Dragoon Guards in the British Army. Camp Bastion was also where Prince Harry was based in 2012 as an Apache helicopter gunner. 
  
 In all, 2,210 American soldiers and 453 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, when the U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban government for harboring al Qaeda after the militant group carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. 
  
 The coalition has been led by NATO since 2003, and includes forces from Germany, Italy, Jordan and Turkey. 
  
 After Sunday's ceremony, the Afghan National Army's 215th Corps will be headquartered at the 28 sq km (11 sq mile) base, leaving almost no foreign military presence in Helmand. 
  
 The U.S. military is leaving behind about $230 million worth of property and equipment –- including a major airstrip at the base, plus roads and buildings -- for the Afghan military. 
  
 "We gave them the maps to the place. We gave them the keys," said Col. Doug Patterson, a Marine brigade commander in charge of logistics. 
  
 Speaking on BBC television, British Defense Minister Michael Fallon said British armed forces had helped to strengthen the Afghan security forces, who were now taking on "full responsibilities". 
  
 "It is with pride that we announce the end of UK combat operations in Helmand, having given Afghanistan the best possible chance of a stable future," he said. 
  
 "CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC" 
  
 Helmand province, which produces 80-90 percent of the opium that helps finance the Taliban's insurgency, has seen fierce fighting this year, with Taliban and allied forces seeking to seize the district of Sangin from the Afghan army and police. 
  
 The battles have raised concerns about whether Afghan forces are truly able to hold off the Taliban without intelligence and air support from the United States and its allies. 
  
 Officials with the U.S.-led coalition say the Afghan forces, which have been losing hundreds of soldiers and policemen each month in battles, assassinations and suicide attacks by insurgents, did not lose any significant ground in the recent summer fighting season. 
  
 "I'm cautiously optimistic they will be able to sustain themselves," said Brig. Gen Daniel Yoo, the commander of Regional Command (Southwest). 
  
 He said the success of the Afghan security forces depended on leadership, continued development of logistics and confidence. 
  
 "They've got to want it more than we do," he said. 
  
 International forces in Afghanistan boosted their numbers to about 140,000 in 2010 troops with the aim of wresting control of Helmand back from the Taliban. By Jan. 1, that number will be about 12,500, comprising mostly trainers and advisers. 
  
 Of those, 9,800 will be American, with the rest from other NATO members. The British will keep a small contingent at an officer training school in Kabul. 
  
 Gen. John Campbell, head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, acknowledged Helmand "has been a very, very tough area" over the last several months. 
  
 "But we feel very confident with the Afghan security forces as they continue to grow in their capacity," he said. 
  
 He said that the smaller international force that will remain next year will still provide some intelligence and air support, two areas where Afghan forces are weak. 
  
 General Sher Mohammad Karimi, chief of staff of the Afghan National Army, also said the insurgency "will keep us busy for a while". 
  
 "We have to do more until we are fully successful and satisfied with the situations," he said. 
  
 Civilian casualties in Afghanistan may reach an all-time high this year, with the United Nations reporting nearly 5,000 killed or wounded in the first half of 2014, most of them by the insurgency. 
  
 Several Afghans at Sunday's ceremony expressed pride at taking over the base, mixed with sadness that the international forces with whom they have worked with for years are leaving for good. 
  
 "We are going to miss our friends," said Afghan Brig. Gen. Nasim Sangin. "But we will still be in touch by email." 
  
 (Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Michael Perry and Kevin Liffey) |||||
Washington may not have "boots on the ground" in Iraq, but it still recorded the first death of a serviceman in the fight against ISIS—19-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Sean Neal, the Washington Post reports. The California native reportedly died in Baghdad in what the Pentagon is calling a noncombat incident. The military divulged no further details but says it is investigating Neal's death, the Marine Corps Times reports. Neal was on his first deployment as part of a new crisis-response group under US Central command; most of the group's 2,300-strong force are stationed in Kuwait, but Neal was one of the 150 assigned to guard US facilities in Iraq, the LA Times reports. Neal's death is officially the first among servicemen fighting ISIS, although another Marine—Cpl. Jordan Spears—was lost at sea in the Persian Gulf earlier this month. Spears was in a Marine unit that also played a part in battling the Islamic State. Meanwhile, British forces pulled out of Afghanistan today as they and US Marines gave the Afghans two huge military bases, Reuters reports. "We gave them the maps to the place," says a Marine commander. "We gave them the keys." About 12,500 troops will stay behind—9,800 of whom are American—mostly to advise and train Afghans in their ongoing fight against the Taliban.