“Our overall approach is to enable local forces to do the fighting”, Carter said a day after a Navy SEAL was killed by Islamic State extremists while advising Kurdish forces battling the militants. Their primary mission then would be to evacuate the advisers and not to aid the Kurds in repelling the attack. Warren says enemy fighters launched a large, complex attack on the Peshmerga in the town, with armored Humvees and bulldozers. Their main objective appeared to be to take Tel Skuf, about 3.5 kilometers, or a little over two miles, behind the front lines. He is the third us service member killed by ISIS since 2014.
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“They fought, but they’re a small number and they’re not supposed to be in direct contact”, and they departed by American helicopter after the SEAL was shot, according to the official. On one hand, Iraqi forces trained and advised by Americans have scored significant battlefield gains in recent months, including the recapture of Ramadi and other advances against IS-held towns in Anbar province. He was struck by “direct fire” at about 9:30 a.m. ET, Warren said.
He died in 2014 at age 90.
General Wahid Kovali, the leader of a Peshmerga counter-terrorism unit that fought alongside the U.S. forces, told The Guardian that Keating and the QRF “were very good fighters”.
The fighting continued for two more hours between USA and Peshmerga forces and ISIS fighters before Keating was hit about 9:32 AM Warren would not disclose how long it took the QRF force to enter the fight.
“The QRF came to help ensure that [the USA advisors] could get away”. ISIS managed to assemble about 125 fighters and 20 vehicles for the assault, destroying a Peshmerga checkpoint as they crossed the frontline and engaged Kurdish troops for more than 12 hours.
“Having them here has raised the morale of our fighters”, said Lieutenant Colonel Helan Mahmood, the head of a commando regiment in the Iraqi Army, as his truck bumped along the dirt track that divides his base from the American encampment, ringed by razor wire and berms.
“It didn’t surprise me when he said (he) wanted to be a Navy SEAL”, Reniewicki told CNN.
Keating attended the Naval Academy and he became a Navy SEAL based out of Coronado, California, according to the Associated Press. Yesterday IU released a statement sending condolences to the entire Keating Family. Another of the senators involved, Arizona’s John McCain, was cleared.
Keating’s death coincides with diverging trends in Iraq. “Like so many fearless 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”, McCain said in a statement.
It also means more risk to US troops, as he acknowledged Tuesday in announcing the latest death, the third of an American service member in combat in Iraq since the USA -led coalition launched its campaign against the Islamic State in the summer of 2014.
His award and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V”, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, National Defense Medal and Rifle and Pistol Expert ribbons.
Mahmood chuckled and shrugged when asked if there were still no U.S. “boots on the ground” in Iraq, as President Barack Obama initially repeatedly pledged.
American forces, he said, would support the local Iraqi forces with training, intelligence, and equipment. “United States forces can not be a substitute for those Iraqi forces” to meet the overall goal of inflicting a lasting defeat upon ISIS, he said.
There are now 30 SEALs in Iraq as part of a Special Forces “advise-and-assist” mission.
Prior to any possible offensive, the official said, the USA -led coalition will be expected to support the intricate web of logistics needed to support Iraqi forces.
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“Our intent here is that these advise and assist teams do not encounter the enemy… As we learned Tuesday, no plan is ideal”.
