The Navy SEAL killed in Iraq on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, was identified as Charlie Keating IV, 31, a former Phoenix high school star distance runner and the grandson of the late Arizona financier involved in the 1980s savings and loan scandal. Brooke was supposed to buy her wedding dress this week. He was an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting ISIS, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement Tuesday.
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Warren said Keating was hit at about 9:30 a.m. and was evacuated for medical treatment, but “his wound was not survivable”.
According to an older article at azcentral.com, Charles Keating IV, known as “Charlie” or “C4”, was more of a runner than a swimmer, having success in track at the high school level. “So we agreed today that we would continue – all of us – to do more to accelerate ISIL’s lasting defeat”, he said following talks with allies in Germany, using an acronym for Islamic State. I can barely speak. “I am devastated that my good friends have suffered this tragedy”.
Defence Secretary Ash Carter announced Keating’s death on 3 May and offered his condolences to the fallen serviceman’s family. We salute your service, Charlie. The attack triggered a massive coalition air response that destroyed equipment, buildings and killed up to 60 militants.
He is the first American combat casualty since the US redeployed forces to Iraq in the summer of 2014. The American was three to two to three miles behind that front line, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Two defense officials said Islamic State fighters used vehicle-borne explosives to breach the peshmerga’s front line and then were able to reach the SEAL’s position, where he was killed by small-arms fire.
The peshmerga made a “tactical retreat” to reorganize their forces, he said.
Carter spoke at the outset of a closed-door meeting in Germany with his counterparts from 11 countries contributing to the military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The Navy Times states that Keating died from a gunshot wound, and his death has been confirmed as a “combat death” by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. According to reports, he was killed in northern Iraq when Islamic State militants launched an attack that included auto bombs. It’s typical for the Department of Defense to withhold the identity of a service member killed in the line of duty until at least 24 hours after the notification of the next of kin.
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He said the Islamic State launched the attack because it is under pressure south of Mosul near Makhmour, where Iraqi forces, with the help of US artillery and airpower, have managed to make some inching gains. “They fought back… They fought out”, Warren said, adding that one truck bomb and a bulldozer broke through a Peshmerga check point and began a sprint to Tel Askuf.
