United States fighter jets are providing close air support for the army in its advance, especially after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s visit to Baghdad last week where he promised more support for local forces fighting ISIS.
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Iraq has opened an investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of 10 Iraqi soldiers in a coalition air strike west of Baghdad, the defence minister said Saturday.
The U.S. military didn’t say how many may have been killed.
Zameli said he had called Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to “immediately” launch an investigation into the attack.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Obeidi, the defense minister, said that “the guilty” would be punished according to Iraqi laws.
The U.S. military did not release death toll figures.
We will never relent on Iraqi blood….
The incident marks the first time the coalition has acknowledged that one of its airstrikes has hit Iraqi forces by accident during the fight against Islamic State.
Iraqi forces have been battling militants in Anbar province. “Our forces got mixed”, the military said.
Iraq’s joint operations command, however, said in a statement that “a third coalition strike carried out without taking into account the distance that had been covered resulted in casualties among our forces, too”.
The airstrike killed nine Iraqi service members, the Iraqi Defense Ministry confirmed Saturday. The airstrike Friday. “has all of the indications of being a mistake of the type in that may occur on a dynamic battlefield”, Carter added.
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Friendly-fire incidents are already bad enough, but this latest incident could further suspicions some Iraqis – particularly those with close ties to Iran – hold about US military intervention. The coalition command said it has invited the government of Iraq to participate in probe. “They are preventing us from making an offensive”, he said.
