A US Navy Seal killed during a firefight in Iraq was part of a team that moved in to rescue military advisers from an Islamic State (IS) attack, the Pentagon confirmed.
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Over the course of the almost two-year-old campaign, the Pentagon has slowly expanded the American military role.
U.S. Army Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler died in October during a special forces mission to rescue hostages held at an IS prison near Hawija, west of Kirkuk.
But in 2014, with ISIS taking swaths of territory, Obama announced 300 troops would return to Iraq in as “advisers”.
In Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s view, that means a greater chance for success.
But those missions do put soldiers at risk: Keating is the third US soldier to be killed in combat in Iraq since past year.
Keating was one of the more than 5,000 USA troops now stationed in Iraq, ostensibly on a noncombat mission.
The SEAL was identified Tuesday as Charlie Keating IV, 31, who grew up in Phoenix and attended the Naval Academy before becoming a SEAL based out of Coronado, California. Gov. Doug Ducey ordered flags in the state to be lowered to half-staff on Wednesday in his honor.
The American was the third to be killed in combat since the USA -led coalition campaign against IS began in 2014. “The Peshmerga have regained control of Tel Askuf”.
“Our strategy is to – because we work not only to defeat ISIL, but to make sure they stay defeated, there has to be a local force that keeps the peace after the peace is secured, and that’s why our overall approach is to enable local forces to do the fighting, to take back”, Carter said.
“They are taking grave risks to protect our country”.
Keating’s death coincides with diverging trends in Iraq. In addition to Britain, several other nations have smaller deployments of “trainers” in Iraq, though no one else in the U.S. coalition is confirmed to have troops in Syria. On the other hand, political conflict in Baghdad fed by sectarian rivalry is threatening to derail the entire effort.
The team was assaulted by more than 100 ISIS fighters who penetrated the front lines with truck bombs and bulldozers.
However, President Barack Obama has repeatedly avoided using the term “boots on the ground”, and steered away from describing Special Operations deployments to Iraq and Syria as taking a combat role.
Warren’s account underscored the risks faced by the more than 4,000 US military personnel whose assignment is often described as training, advising and equipping Iraqi forces.
To help push the militants back, 11 US warplanes were scrambled and delivered 31 airstrikes.
Warren said the QRF responding to the Tal Usquf attack is part of the force protection troops, which make up about half of the about 4,000 total USA personnel in Iraq. The cap was increased last week from 3,870 to 4,087. Several U.S. soldiers are seen near a pickup truck taking fire.
In a teleconference briefing with Pentagon reporters from Baghdad, Warren said Keating responded to the ISIL attack on the peshmerga forces as part of a US quick-reaction force in the village of Tal Asquf at about 7:30 a.m., according to DoD News. The Islamic State broke through their frontline position with a barrage of armored Humvees and bulldozers, Dosky said, and clashes killed at least three peshmerga fighters.
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“He was killed by direct fire”.
