The air strikes were conducted at the request of Iraqi security forces and using information they provided, the Pentagon said.
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Carter, who called Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to express condolences, told reporters Saturday that “these kinds of things happen when you’re fighting side by side as we are”.
According to the minister, coalition aircraft were providing support for Iraqi troops in the area because Iraqi air force planes had poor visibility due to weather conditions.
The US said they will investigate what happened “to determine the facts” and has invited the Iraqis to participate. After two airstrikes, a third was carried out “without taking into account the distance that had been covered”, Iraq’s joint operations command said in a statement.
Carter met with Abadi this week during a brief visit to Baghdad to assess the state of the campaign against Islamic State.
The deadly airstrike could further complicate political discussions among the Shiite Muslim-led government, which has also partnered with Iranian forces and Iraqi Shiite militias backed by Iran.
“We felt that it is very necessary to announce this incident to silence some of the mouths which may talk badly”, he said. A B-1B lancer accidentally killed 5 US special forces operatives and an Afghan Army soldier.
“I think everyone is now convinced that the United States is not honest in its fight against Islamic State. More than 20 soldiers were killed and over 30 servicemen were wounded as a result of the airstrike”, Hakim al-Zamili, head of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said.
“We lost 9 of our soldiers”, Khaled al-Obeidi said in Baghdad, adding that “an investigation into the incident was opened”. When the strike occurred, Iraqi forces and militants were situated close together.
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A Canadian soldier was killed in Iraq in March after Kurdish forces mistakenly fired on him and three others.
