“I don’t know much more than that, but I believe that much is true”. The SEALs were among the first advisers to help mentor counter-ISIL forces.
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Reniewicki said Keating was a joyful young man and decorated athlete. Keating competed in the mile run.
Charlie Keating, 31, attended the Naval Academy before becoming a Navy SEAL based out of San Diego, California. He was engaged to be married in November and lived in the San Diego area.
The SEAL, who has not been further identified, is the third USA serviceman to die while fighting in Iraq since the us -led coalition launched its campaign against the Islamic State in the summer of 2014.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the service member’s death while in Stuttgart, Germany, for a change of command ceremony at U.S. European Command headquarters. A USA service member was shot at 9:30 a.m. local time; he died an hour later in a United States medical facility in nearby Erbil, the official said.
“The casualty occurred during an ISIL attack on a Peshmerga position approximately three to five kilometers behind the forward line of troops”.
“Our thoughts, prayers and eternal gratitude are with Charlie Keating, his family, his fellow SEALs, and all of the fearless Americans who’ve answered the call to serve”. “Like so many courageous Americans who came before him, Charlie sacrificed his life in honorable service to our nation for a cause greater than self-interest, which we can never truly repay”.
There are 3,000 USA troops conducting combat missions in Iraq, and they’ve been joined by 250 additional troops in Syria, bringing the official total in that country of US troops to 300. The gun battle was around the town of Telskof in northern Iraq, the official added.
Members of the USA -led coalition have been training, advising and assisting local forces – including Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga troops that mostly occupy the north of Iraq.
ISIS forces broke through using three truck bombs followed by bulldozers which cleared the wreckage away, which is how they got in the rear. But defense officials say there are an additional 1,000 personnel who are not part of that number, since the Pentagon does not count troops who serve in Iraq on temporary duty for less than 120 days.
The militant group has been on the defensive in recent months after the USA -led coalition had successfully degraded the Islamic State’s military capabilities by targeting oil fields and other sources of revenue for the ISIS militants, but today’s tragic death is a reminder that ISIS is still unsafe, and still a serious threat to the security of Iraq, Syria and other nations in the Middle East. “Our coalition will honor this sacrifice by dealing ISIL a lasting defeat”.
The defense secretary provided no further details but said the service member died “in the neighborhood of Irbil”, according to the AP.
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Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, a member of a U.S. Army special forces unit also undertaking an advise-and-assist mission, was killed by Islamic State forces last October during a hostage rescue operation. A U.S. Marine was killed and several more were wounded by enemy rocket fire in northern Iraq in mid-March.
